HR2262-119

What This Bill Does

The Flexibility for Workers Education Act changes the FLSA rule for counting certain training and education time as hours worked. It rewrites section 3(o) so the existing exclusion for clothes-changing or washing under a bona fide collective-bargaining agreement remains in place, and it adds a separate exclusion for time an employee spends attending or participating in an education or training program, lecture, or similar activity. The exclusion applies only if the activity occurs outside regular working hours, participation is voluntary, the employer does not take adverse action when the employee declines, and the employee performs no work for the employer during the activity.

Who Benefits and How

Employers offering voluntary training benefit because qualifying off-hours education time does not have to be treated as paid hours worked for minimum-wage or overtime calculations. Employers sponsoring career-development programs receive clearer protection when participation is voluntary and no work is performed. Worker education providers may gain demand if employers can offer optional programs without creating compensable-hours exposure.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Hourly nonexempt employees attending training could lose paid hours if education time that might otherwise be compensable falls within the new exclusion. Labor unions representing nonexempt workers may need to monitor whether training is truly voluntary and whether nonattendance triggers adverse action. The Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division must enforce the new boundary between voluntary education and compensable work.

Key Provisions

• Amends FLSA section 3(o) to preserve the collective-bargaining exclusion for clothes-changing or washing time.
• Excludes voluntary education, training, lecture, or similar activity time from compensable hours when it occurs outside regular working hours.
• Requires participation to be voluntary and bars employer adverse action for nonattendance.
• Requires the employee to perform no work for the employer during the excluded activity.
• Applies the amended hours-worked rule to hours worked on or after enactment.