Businesses ‘Quickly Scrambling’ After Overtime Regulation Hold-Up
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe chief executive officer of a central Indiana human resources management company says a ruling that temporarily halts significant upcoming overtime regulations was a surprise and opens up questions and challenges for employers. Brent Tilson of Greenwood-based Tilson HR says business leaders may now have to reconsider changes they’ve made over the last five or six months. The new U.S. Department of Labor rules, which involve doubling the minimum required salary for exempt employees, had been set to take effect December 1.
Tilson told Inside INdiana Business companies are "quickly scrambling" to determine what’s next. "The first thing they need to think about is what decisions have they made so far? What can be possibly suspended, maybe rolled back? What decisions do they need to think about for the morale of the organization and how were things communicated, probably most importantly? Did they meet with their employees and inform them of the decisions as a result of these new rules or did they just give raises and make changes without really having communications," Tilson said. He believes the path word will be handled on a case-by-case basis and depends on what employees have already been told about policies they’ve already set in motion involving overtime, pay increases and even bringing on new staff members to avoid paying overtime.
The preliminary injunction filed by Judge Amos Mazzant in the Eastern District of Texas is effective immediately. Twenty-one states, including Indiana, and several business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed suits at the federal level to block the federal mandates. Tilson says the ruling came as such a surprise to many because multiple recent high-level rulings on major federal regulations, such as the Affordable Care Act, have tended to favor the government. He warns "anything can happen," as there is expected to be additional legal action in response to the preliminary injunction.
Greenwood-based Tilson HR CEO Brent Tilson told Inside INdiana Business companies are “quickly scrambling” to determine what’s next.
