USMCA Examples of Direct Production Work
Section 810.110 provides a non-exhaustive list of examples of types of work that constitute direct production work for purposes of calculating the average hourly base wage rate. The Department includes these examples to help producers understand which types of work to include when properly calculating the average hourly base wage rate. These examples are consistent with the USMCA, as they describe types of work performed by “employees directly involved in . . . production[.]” Automotive Appendix, Article 7.3 n.77.
Consistent with the Uniform Regulations, subsection (a) explains that direct production work includes production of vehicles and parts, including both manufacture and assembly, as well as the operation or maintenance of equipment used in the production of vehicles and parts. Direct production work is not specific to a single location in the plant or facility; it may take place on a production line, at a workstation, on the shop floor, or in another production area. As to specific tasks, direct production work includes material handling of vehicles or parts; inspections of vehicles or parts, including inspections that are normally categorized as quality control, and for heavy trucks, pre-sale inspections carried out at the place where the vehicle is produced; on-the-job training regarding the execution of a specific production task; and maintaining and ensuring the operation of the production line or production area and the operation of tools and equipment used in the production of vehicles or parts, including the cleaning of the line or production area and the places around it. Direct production work may be performed by skilled tradespeople, such as process or production engineers, mechanics, technicians, and other employees, responsible for maintaining and ensuring the operation of the production line or tools and equipment used in the direct production of vehicles or parts. Consistent with Article 7.3 of the Automotive Appendix and the Uniform Regulations, direct production work does not include research and development work or engineering work unrelated to maintaining and ensuring the operation of the production line or tools and equipment used in the production of vehicles or parts.
Subsection (b) explains that except for workers described in § 810.130, time spent, for example, by line supervisors and team leads, engaged in providing on-the-job training regarding the execution of a specific production task or relieving a worker in the performance of direct production duties is direct production work. On-the-job training generally involves direct production work and often occurs on the production line, at a workstation, on the shop floor, or in another production area. Such activities would include, for example, a line supervisor staying at a workstation with a worker to guide the worker through how to perform a task the worker has been assigned. Relief work also constitutes hours worked in direct production because in such instances the supervisor is performing the same direct production work performed by the relieved worker, and which would normally be included in that worker’s hours worked in direct production. However, time spent managing workers, including supervising workers performing direct production work, is not itself direct production work, and therefore is not included in the average hourly base wage rate calculation.
The Department invites comments from stakeholders concerning what, if any, additional examples of direct production work should be included in the final rule.
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