The Higher Ed Workplace Blog

On February 22, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Helix Energy Solutions, Inc. v. Hewitt, finding that an employee making over $200,000 per year was entitled to overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) because he was not paid on a salary basis. The case is a reminder that exempt status depends not only on how much the employee is paid, but also on how they are paid. Employers may want to be particularly careful when providing exempt employees — including part-time exempt employees — with different weekly pay based on hours worked.

On February 9, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) issued an opinion letter stating that employees with chronic serious health conditions may use Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave to reduce work hours indefinitely. The WHD opinion letters serve as a means by which the public can develop a clearer understanding of what FMLA compliance entails. This particular letter is the first issued by the Biden administration.

In the 118th Congress, bills will likely be introduced to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which includes programs utilized by community colleges and other institutions of higher education pursuing their own workforce development agendas. Passed in July 2014, WIOA is the primary federal law to increase access to and coordination between workforce development and other related programs. This blog post provides context on what the WIOA accomplishes and highlights recent attempts to reauthorize the law.

After a month in session, the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate are finalizing their committee and subcommittee membership rosters. Of particular significance are the House Education and the Workforce Committee and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, which have jurisdiction over higher education and many labor and employment issues, including overtime, paid leave, occupational safety and health and employment-based discrimination.

CUPA-HR General Counsel Ira Shepard’s overview this month details two cases under Supreme Court consideration that challenge the court-created “adverse employment action” rule, the dismissal of a professor’s bias case for failure to establish “pervasive” harassment , the advancement of a former medical school professor’s race discrimination claim based on disparate treatment of student complaints, and details on 2022 U.S. labor union strike activity and membership.

Employee learning and development (L&D) offerings at higher ed institutions have changed significantly over the last three years. To find out what other institutions are doing in this area, Krista Vaught, assistant director of employee learning and engagement at Vanderbilt University, conducted a survey in the summer of 2022. Survey responses from L&D professionals at 115 institutions reveal the following trends in program delivery, attendance, topics and outcomes.

On January 4, 2023, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a proposed rule to adjust certain immigration and naturalization benefit request fees, which would result in significantly higher fees for employment-based petitioners. USCIS claims that the increased fees will “allow USCIS to more fully recover its operating costs, reestablish and maintain timely case processing, and prevent the accumulation of future case backlogs.”

CUPA-HR General Counsel Ira Shepard’s overview this month details a divided federal court of appeals decision on whether separating school bathrooms by biological sex violates the Constitution and Title IX, an NLRB ruling that will expand damage remedies against employers who commit unfair labor practices, a class-action lawsuit claiming ERISA violations by the trustees at Boston College, and more.

As previous research from CUPA-HR has shown, America’s colleges and universities are in the midst of a talent crisis, as many employees are considering other employment opportunities due to a number of factors. As a follow-up to the initial findings of CUPA-HR’s 2022 Higher Education Employee Retention Survey, CUPA-HR has released new findings focused specifically on those in supervisory roles, and the data show that many supervisors are overwhelmed, under-resourced, and struggling to fill positions and maintain morale.

On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed the $1.7 trillion Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 (omnibus bill) to fund the federal government through fiscal year 2023 (FY 2023). Given the “must-pass” nature of the bill, the omnibus bill also served as a vehicle for policy unrelated to government funding that was unlikely to pass as a standalone bill in Congress. Below outlines some of the highlights that will impact higher education generally and human resources specifically.