Last month, the Supreme Court in Encino Motorcars v. Navarro vacated a Ninth Circuit ruling that auto service advisers were eligible for overtime compensation. The justices also instructed the lower court to reconsider the matter without taking into account recent Labor Department regulations which they said were issues without adequate explanation. Venable partner Brian Turoff and associate Allison Gotfried reacted to the ruling in a July 6, 2016 Westlaw Journal article.
"The decision highlights a tension between the weight of administrative agencies' interpretations and common law authority," said Turoff and Gotfried. "It demonstrates that while courts must afford deference to an agency's reasonable interpretation of a statute, such deference is not granted unconditionally." They added, "Ultimately, [the decision] serves as another reminder of the evolving and sometimes conflicting wage-and-hour rules as expounded on by the DOL and the court system."