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Labor Department: Employees Must Be Compensated For Time Spent Watching Training Webinars During Work Hours

 

Last week, the Labor Department issued an opinion letter in which it stated that employees must be paid for time spent watching training webinars during work hours, even if the webinar is not directly related to the job.

In the opinion letter, the Labor Department considered whether an employer was required to pay its employees for time spent watching training webinars.  When it came to voluntary education training, the employer required its employees to substitute paid time off or vacation time when the employee attended these training sessions during work hours.  No compensation was paid if the employees attended training sessions after work hours.

The Labor Department recognized that the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) requires employers to compensate employees for their work.  In this instance, the Labor Department found that even when training is voluntary and could be conducted/viewed outside of regular work hours, that was “immaterial.”  The FLSA dictated that “work not requested but suffered or permitted is work time” and therefore compensable.  With that being said, the Labor Department did point out that employers could prohibit watching training webinars during work hours, if they so chose.

While this opinion letter is instructive, the letter (as they all do) recognized that it was an opinion letter that came about based upon the particular facts as presented.  As a result, the Labor Department left some leeway to vary from this opinion letter in the future, if presented with similar (but slightly different) facts on the same issue.


For a copy of the opinion letter:  https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/opinion-letters/FLSA/2020_11_03_15_FLSA.pdf

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