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2016 Overtime Regulations: They Are Still Out There

June 13, 2017 Labor & Employment Blog Wage and Hour

Like a science fiction television show from the 90s, the 2016 overtime regulations are still out there, as is the injunction preventing their implementation. To bring those that may just be returning from Close Encounters of the Third Kind up to date, in the latter part of 2016 employers rushed to get ready for December 1, 2016, the effective date for the regulations. On November 22, 2016, just days before the effective date and as employers scrambled to make their final preparations for the changes, a federal judge blocked the implementation. With the speed of Quicksilver, the Obama administration initiated an appeal. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted expedited review of the injunction, and many anticipated witnessing The War of the Worlds play out during oral argument. Then, as if a spacecraft had landed in Roswell and this time everyone stopped to watch the aliens disembark, the momentum came to a crashing halt just like a hirsute alien spacecraft piloted by Jeff Goldblum.

Shortly after President Trump took office, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) requested a postponement of its deadline to submit a reply brief. This request was granted. Just as that deadline was filed, the DOL again requested a postponement. Currently, the DOL’s reply brief is due on June 30, 2017. Although the new Administration could have withdrawn the appeal, it has not. Therefore, there still may be a chance for a strategic showdown such as that seen in Pixels.