Littler reported an extremely noteworthy (and read-worthy) decision earlier this week by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas reinstating the Trump administration business-friendly independent contractor rule (“2020 Rule”) and vacating the Biden administration rules that delayed and then withdrew the 2020 Rule based on the DOL’s violation of the APA in the rulemaking process. At issue was whether the DOL’s rulemaking actions that delayed the effectiveness and then withdrew the 2020 Rule were consistent with the relevant APA agency standard of review. In addition to violating the APA’s notice-and-comment requirements, the DOL was determined to have acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner in promulgating the Biden administration rules.
See this Bloomberg article: “Business Groups Get Trump Independent Contractor Rule Reinstated” and our prior reports: “DOL Rule Clarifies Employee vs. Independent Contractor” (January 2021) and “DOL Proposes Unwinding Independent Contractor & Joint Employer Rules” (March 2021).
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!