In recent months, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has announced multiple compliance initiatives. With the Consolidated Appropriations Act recently signed into law by President Joe Biden allocating a 14% increase in funding to the DOL—and $2.1 billion designated specifically to worker protection agencies under its purview—the DOL is “beefing up” its enforcement efforts with additional resources.

On March 10, the DOL announced that one of its top enforcement priorities is retaliation, and it is particularly focused on retaliation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), among other statutes, orders and trade agreements. As part of this initiative, the DOL launched a new webpage dedicated to providing retaliation-related information and resources. In addition, the DOL issued field assistance bulletin (FAB) No. 2022-02 titled “Protecting Workers From Retaliation,” which provides guidance on retaliation claims under its jurisdiction.