Federal Labor Guidance
Free plain-English summaries of opinion letters, administrative policies, and interpretive notices from the U.S. Department of Labor, with the current status and the official source on every page.
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Teamsters pension escrow account outside ERISA
The Labor Department said an escrow account established to hold employer contributions for possible entry into a Teamsters pension plan was not itself an ERISA welfare or pension plan. It did not…
Employer contribution of real estate option to pension plan
The Labor Department said an employer’s contribution of a condominium purchase option to satisfy its defined-benefit plan funding obligation was a prohibited sale or exchange with a party in…
Steel band guardrails at concrete slab edges
A concrete contractor asked whether steel bands could protect workers at building slab edges. OSHA said ordinary bands posed an edge hazard, but a flagged, edge-protected, strong, and regularly…
Transit plan reporting after public acquisition
The Labor Department said a midyear sale of two transit companies to a state entity did not alone accelerate their plans’ reporting deadlines. Former administrative committee members generally were…
Holiday Inn health plans and Florida insurance review
The Labor Department said seven individually established Holiday Inn benefit plans were ERISA welfare plans and could not be deemed insurers under Florida insurance law. It could not decide whether…
Temporary worker housing beyond migrant agriculture
An OSHA region asked whether the temporary labor camp rule was limited to migrant farmworkers. OSHA said the rule applied to employer-provided temporary job housing for workers away from a permanent…
Legal-services plans, state insurance law, and pooled assets
The Labor Department said providing services to ERISA plans did not by itself preempt state regulation of the service provider; the particular law and insurance exception mattered. Separate employer…
Credit union prepaid legal-services plan
The Labor Department treated the N&W Employees Credit Union as an employee organization and its prepaid legal-services program as an ERISA welfare plan. The provider’s participation alone did not…
Phoenix Steel annuity plan after final insurance payment
The Labor Department said Phoenix Steel’s old pension plan would be outside ERISA if, after the Bank waived its contract rights, annuitants could choose on their own to enforce benefits against the…
Kimberly-Clark employee fund and audit requirement
The Labor Department said the Munising Mill employees’ benefit fund was an ERISA welfare plan and ordinarily needed an independent accountant’s audit. It was considering a specific exemption,…
Air-supplied welding helmets and breathing-air quality
A helmet maker asked whether a cooling-air welding helmet could be used wherever standard helmets were allowed. OSHA said the supplied air had to meet Grade D breathing-air quality and the helmet…
Milk vendors pension plan and ERISA coverage
The Labor Department said a milk-vendor pension plan did not appear covered by ERISA Title I on the limited material supplied because the vendors did not appear to be employees of the milk…
Canadian mine pension plan outside ERISA
Based on the requester's account that the covered employees were Canadian residents and not U.S. citizens, and that the relevant operations were in Canada, the Labor Department said the Wabush Mines…
Rooftop fall protection for powered platform access
An engineer asked about protection on roofs where workers access powered platforms. OSHA said it would accept a three-foot guardrail in the described locations and an adequately anchored permanent…
Audible warning horns on construction equipment
A contractor asked whether older construction equipment was exempt from horn requirements. OSHA said motor vehicles and bidirectional equipment such as bulldozers and loaders needed operable audible…
Rollover IRA loan to owner’s company
The Labor Department said an IRA established from a former employer’s plan distribution met two regulatory conditions for being outside ERISA pension-plan status. A loan from the IRA to the owner’s…
Firefighters association group life insurance
The Labor Department treated a Nashville-area government firefighters association as an employee organization under ERISA. It declined to decide whether the association endorsed a voluntary group…
Deferred vacation benefits as welfare plan
The Labor Department said American Motors’ proposed deferred vacation benefit arrangement appeared to satisfy its severance-pay exclusion from ERISA pension-plan status, assuming reasonable…
Manual fire alarms and employee emergency plans
An employer asked about supervised manual fire alarms. OSHA said there was no general requirement to install a manual fire alarm, but a system installed for an emergency plan had to meet applicable…
Height, bracing, and rails on mobile scaffold towers
A scaffold manufacturer asked how construction rules applied to a mobile tower. OSHA said the photographed unit should be treated as one tower and meet the then-current height-to-base ratio,…
Low pitched roof perimeter rule and built-up roofing
An OSHA regional office asked when its low-pitched roof perimeter rule applied. OSHA said the then-current rule addressed built-up roofing work, while other roofing tasks could fall under other fall…
Scholarship fund participants and reporting
The Labor Department said individuals meeting the Arthur J. Faggion Scholarship Fund's eligibility criteria were participants, and their eligible children were beneficiaries. Those criteria included…
Electrical grounding, clearances, and grain dust classifications
An OSHA region asked six questions about the revised general-industry electrical rules. OSHA explained when grounding-type receptacles and terminals were required, how limited exposed live parts and…
Alaska public employees legal plan status
The Labor Department said the Alaska Public Employees Legal Fund was a governmental plan outside ERISA Title I, despite its collective bargaining origin and joint administration. The conclusion…
Thomas decision on religious voluntary quits
ETA explained the Supreme Court’s Thomas decision and its implications for unemployment benefits after a worker quits for religious reasons. Current status is unconfirmed.
Gratuitous death benefit from pension assets
The Labor Department said paying a fund manager’s widow a gratuitous death benefit from pension assets would violate ERISA’s exclusive-purpose duties because she was not a plan beneficiary and the…
Treadle-activated security locks on exit doors
A company asked whether a security door opened by a treadle pad met the exit route rule. OSHA said the system appeared acceptable if the pad released the door and exit remained possible during power…
Petroleum landmen association insurance programs
The Labor Department said insurance programs offered by the American Association of Petroleum Landmen were not themselves ERISA welfare plans because the association was neither an employee…
Arbitrator fiduciary status and indemnification
The Labor Department said an arbitrator deciding plan benefit claims could be an ERISA fiduciary, but to the extent the described arbitration concerned only plan design in collective bargaining, it…
Training trust as ERISA welfare plan
The Labor Department said a collectively bargained training trust was an ERISA welfare plan, even though it funded other entities to conduct training. Eligible workers were participants, and the…
Longshore job-security funding program
The Labor Department said a collectively bargained program that collected carrier assessments to cover shortfalls in local longshore benefit plans was not itself an ERISA benefit plan because…
Iowa bankers benefit-plan reporting
The Labor Department could not determine whether the Iowa Bankers Benefit Plan was a single ERISA plan without more facts about the sponsoring bank group. If member banks had separate plans, each…
Employer stock contribution and repurchase
The Labor Department found a company profit-sharing plan was an eligible individual account plan and that its employer stock was qualifying securities. A proposed company repurchase could meet an…
ANSI press brake standard as guarding guidance
An ANSI committee member asked how OSHA used its press brake standard. OSHA said the general machine guarding rule governed mechanical power press brakes and that it used ANSI B11.3 and a later…
Retention and access to accident-related medical X-rays
An OSHA regional memo circulated an April 24 interpretation about medical X-rays. It said accident-only bone films could be excluded from long-term retention under stated conditions, while their…
Medical records held by outside healthcare contractors
A company asked whether its duties under the medical records access rule extended to physical examinations and treatment by outside providers. OSHA said they did: employers remained responsible for…
Crane operator physical qualification requirements
A union asked whether physical qualification provisions in ANSI crane and derrick standards referenced by OSHA's construction rule applied to equipment operators. OSHA said those incorporated…
Hospital plan fiduciaries serving on insurer board
The Labor Department said a hospital plan fiduciary’s service on a Blue Cross board was not itself a prohibited conflict under the cited ERISA provision. If the insurer’s interests were adverse to…
YWCA savings plan and New York insurance law
The Labor Department classified a YWCA employees’ savings plan as an ERISA pension plan. Because it was covered and no exclusion appeared to apply, ERISA preempted New York Insurance Law section 200…
Life-insurance program and small-plan reporting relief
The Labor Department said the described Equitable insurance arrangement satisfied paragraph (b)(2)(ii) of the small-plan reporting rule. It did not determine whether the plans satisfied every…
Retention of accident-related employee X-rays
A medical clinic asked about preserving worker medical records. OSHA said employees exposed to toxic substances or harmful physical agents generally had medical records retained for employment plus…
Steel truss work and perimeter fall protection
A lawyer sought a variance for perimeter netting during steel truss work. OSHA discussed static lines, ladder access, and the limited circumstances in which initial steel connectors might work…
Early redemption penalty on bank plan deposits
The Labor Department said an ERISA exemption could cover bank-rule penalties when a bank-sponsored plan redeemed its certificates of deposit early. The exemption did not excuse fiduciary prudence,…
Sun retirement plan employer-security limits
The Labor Department treated Sun’s retirement arrangement as one plan for ERISA employer-securities limits, rather than separate plans for each participating corporate employer. It relied on the…
California dental program outside ERISA plan status
The Labor Department said Peoples Dental and its dental program were not ERISA welfare plans because the sponsoring association was neither an employee organization nor an employer and no employer…
Retiree travel passes outside ERISA coverage
The Labor Department said Eastern Airlines’ reduced-rate travel program for retirees was not an ERISA welfare plan because travel discounts were not listed benefits, and did not appear to be a…
Guarding of nonwoven abrasive wheels
An OSHA office asked for testing of varied nonwoven abrasive wheels before issuing final product-wide guidance. Its preliminary analysis said the abrasive wheel guard rule could apply when a…
Extended-benefit disqualification draft-language correction
ETA corrected its earlier draft language for implementing extended-benefit disqualification provisions. ETA still lists the letter as continuing.
Garden State dental program and ERISA coverage
The Labor Department said Garden State Dental Benefits Program was not itself an ERISA welfare plan because it was neither an employer nor an employee organization. A union or employer arranging…
Max Factor severance program as welfare plan
The Labor Department said Max Factor’s proposed severance program was an ERISA welfare plan because it provided severance benefits. It was not a pension plan because its payments met the cited…
Unused sick-leave bonus outside stated ERISA categories
The Labor Department said Veda’s proposed bonus for employees who did not use sick leave was not an ERISA welfare plan or, by its express terms, a pension plan. It could not resolve whether…
Brokerage commissions returned to a pension plan
EBSA said the plan sponsor’s receipt of mutual-fund brokerage commissions would not itself violate ERISA’s transaction rules if the commissions were returned to the plan in the ordinary course of…
Buffalo and Mansfield frozen pension plans under ERISA
The Labor Department said the Buffalo and Mansfield pension plans frozen before ERISA remained covered by Title I to the extent they continued to provide retirement benefits. The fact that…
Profit-sharing plan stock exchange exemption
The Labor Department said a Consumers United profit-sharing plan’s proposed exchange of common stock for preferred stock and a canceled note, followed by company repurchases, could use an ERISA…
Heritage plan’s exchange for employer preferred stock
The Labor Department said a profit-sharing plan’s proposed exchange of an employer note and common stock for preferred stock would count as an acquisition under ERISA’s employer-securities…
Accountant audit requirement for three welfare plans
The Labor Department said three welfare plans with more than 100 participants did not qualify for the small-plan waiver of an independent accountant’s examination. A separately maintained account…
ERISA preemption of proposed New Jersey health coverage laws
The Labor Department said two proposed New Jersey bills requiring health insurance contracts to cover specified treatments appeared to regulate insurance and therefore would fall within ERISA’s…
Plan contributions and trustee duties for an employee contractor
The Labor Department said ERISA’s fiduciary rules did not bar contributions measured by work performed by a union employee who also acted as an independent contractor, or benefits owed under the…
Warning lines and monitors for built-up roofing
An internal OSHA request asked how fall protection options under a built-up roofing rule worked. OSHA described motion stopping, warning line, and monitoring systems and said a monitor could also…
IRA investments in custodian’s thrift certificates
The Labor Department said Capitol Thrift and Loan qualified as a similar financial institution and its thrift certificates were deposits for a prohibited-transaction exemption. IRA investments in…
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These are official interpretive documents from the U.S. Department of Labor: opinion letters answering questions from employers and workers, administrative policies, and interpretive notices. They show how the agency applies wage-and-hour and workplace law to real situations, but they are guidance, not statutes or court decisions, and the agency can supersede or withdraw them. Every page above shows the document's current status, when that status was last verified, and a link to the official source.