Mass-Peculiarities: An Employers Guide to Wage & Hour Law in the Bay State 2022 Edition

160 | Massachusetts Wage & Hour Peculiarities, 2022 ed. © 2022 Seyfarth Shaw LLP these requirements, and the telephone number of the DLS, in a conspicuous location within their places of business. The DLS has created a sample “Notice of Rights” poster. 951 The new notice requirements do not apply to two categories of employees: (1) “professional employees,” as defined in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 152 ; 952 and (2) secretaries or administrative assistants with certain enumerated duties. 953 2. Limitations on Fees Charged to TemporaryWorkers The law prohibits staffing agencies and work site employers from charging fees to temporary workers for the following : 954 • The cost of registering with the agency or for procuring employment • Any goods or services unless there is a written contract that states in clear language that the contract is voluntary and provides that the employer will not profit from the fee • Issuing a bank card, debit card, payroll card, voucher, draft, money order or similar form of payment or wages, or any drug screen that exceeds the actual cost per applicant/employee • Any goods or services that would cause the applicant or employee to earn less than the minimum wage • A criminal offender record information (CORI) request • Transportation, unless the charge is no more than the actual cost of the transportation, does not exceed 3 percent of the employee’s total daily wages, does not reduce the employee’s daily wages to below the minimum wage, and is not for transportation that 951 Available at ht tps://www.mass.gov/service-details/not ice-of-temporary-workers-right s-posters (last visited July 14, 2021). 952 29 U.S.C. § 152 defines a “professional employee” as follows: “ (a) any employee engaged in work (i) predominant ly intellectual and varied in character as opposed to rout ine mental, manual, mechanical, or physical work; (ii) involving the consistent exercise of discret ion and judgment in it s performance; (iii) of such a character that the output produced or the result accomplished cannot be standardized in relat ion to a given period of t ime; [and] (iv) requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual inst ruct ion and study in an inst itut ion of higher learning or a hospital, as dist inguished from a general academic educat ion or from an apprent iceship or from t raining in the performance of rout ine mental, manual or physical processes; or (b) any employee, who (i) has completed the courses of specialized intellectual inst ruct ion and study described in clause (iv) of [subsect ion (a)]; and (ii) is performing related work under the supervision of a professional person to qualify himself to become a professional employee as defined in [subsect ion (a)].” 953 A secretary or administ rat ive assistant qualifies for this except ion if his or her main or primary dut ies involve one or more of the following: draft ing or revising correspondence; scheduling appointments; creat ing, organizing, andmaintaining paper and elect ronic files; and providing informat ion to callers or visitors. M.G.L. ch. 149, § 159C. 954 This sect ion describes fees that staffing agencies cannot charge to temporary workers. The regulat ions provide detailed provisions on fees that employment agencies can charge to certain workers. 454 C.M.R. § 24.09.