WASHINGTON - The Bureau of Duty Hours said Monday that a workplace-agent task may not start or continue until a clerk stamps an on-duty slip. Mid-run tasks are placed in a wire cage as incomplete filings. Ordinary chat may continue without a slip. Under Circular DH-4, only a task qualifies as duty. A completion does not. The user prints a one-line description at the window. A clerk inks the slip and stamps ON DUTY, then hangs the sheet on the cage. The agent may resume only after that sheet is date-stamped. "A task without a slip is off the clock," said Helen Voss, counsel to the bureau. "We do not resume off-clock duties." Labs that still run unpaid chat windows may keep those open. Paid-tier agent runs that emit without a slip are returned to the cage. A staffer at one frontier lab, not authorized to speak, said the cage now holds stacks of mid-run tickets from the morning filing. The rule takes effect 1 September for all duty windows in the capital district. The bureau said it will publish a specimen slip after the first week of filings.