United States of America: Filed appeal against Texas Court ruling vacating DOL delay of implementation of Rule on Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act

On 13 May 2022, the Department of Labor (DOL) appealed a decision made by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The Court ruled that the decisions made by the DOL to initially delay and then withdraw the rule defining independent contractors were void. According to the Texas court decision on 14 March 2022, the rule's original implementation date, 8 March 2021, is to be regarded as the true implementation date. The rule will be in effect retroactively and to this day. The Department of Labor (DOL) had announced a new rule distinguishing between "employees" and "independent contractors". Previously, there had been regulatory confusion over this distinction. Determining who is considered an employee or an independent contractor was based on a variety of unofficial factors. This rule, according to the DOL, is a mere adoption of what the unofficial definition has been in courts and departments in the first place. Independent contractors are "workers who, as a matter of economic reality, are in business for themselves", whereas employees are dependent on their potential employer. Determining who is dependent and who is not can be set along five variables, with the most important being the extent of the person's control over their work and the person's probability of obtaining profit or loss.