By Kate McGovern Tornone, Editor
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) did not properly explain a regulatory change made in 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court has determined. The department issued regulations exempting car dealership “service advisors” from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA’s) overtime requirements but those rules were not properly issued and therefore are not entitled to deference, the High Court recently ruled.
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The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals— which covers Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington—held earlier this year that advisors must be paid overtime because they are not included in the law’s exemption for a “salesman, partsman, or mechanic primarily engaged in selling or service automobiles” (Navarro v. Encino Motorcars, LLC, No. 13-55323, (9th Cir. March 24, 2015).
The court determined that the workers did not fall under the definition of “salesman, partsman, or mechanic” included in DOL regulations.