In today’s news and commentaries, Fifth Circuit upholds DOL authority to set salary threshold for the right to overtime pay, 132 logistics workers at United Natural Foods, Inc. petition to unionize with the Teamsters, and Boeing workers hold vote on whether to approve new labor contract or strike.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Department of Labor’s (DOL) authority to use salary levels to “define and delimit” the Fair Labor Standards Act’s exemption for certain “executive, administrative, professional and outside sales” from federal overtime pay requirements. The panel affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit by Robert Mayfield—an owner of fast food restaurants in the Austin, Texas area—who challenged the DOL’s 2019 rulemaking establishing that salaried workers earning less than $35,568 annually are automatically eligible and owed overtime pay. The panel rejected Mayfield’s argument that the DOL’s promulgation of any rule imposing a salary requirement exceeds the agency’s statutorily conferred authority and violates the nondelegation doctrine. The 5th Circuit panel importantly found that major questions doctrine did not apply, and in applying Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, upheld the DOL’s interpretation of the statute. The decision is favorable to the Biden Administration’s more recent rule promulgation to raise the salary threshold such that salaried workers making less than $58,656 are now eligible for time-and-a-half overtime wages when working in excess of 40 hours per week.

132 logistics workers at United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) have filed their petition to unionize with the Teamsters Local Union No. 776. The workers’ petition marks the third UNFI location to seek to join the Teamsters in the past three weeks. 271 UNFI logistics workers in Sarasota, Florida filed their unionization petition on September 6, 2024, and 217 workers in Atlanta, Georgia filed on August 28, 2024.

Approximately 33,000 unionized Boeing workers vote today on whether to approve a new labor contract before a strike deadline set for tonight. If the factory workers organized with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers reject the contract and two-thirds of the members vote to strike, a work stoppage at a parts center in Oregon, two airplane factories, and a fabricating facility in Seattle would begin Friday at 12:01 AM. Results of the vote are expected to be released Thursday night as voting began at 5 AM local time in union halls across Washington state, Oregon, and other locations.