PUTTING WORKERS FIRST?

Who are the Trump Administration & Congress (really) fighting for?
"Every decision . . . will be made to benefit American workers."
- President Trump, Inaugural Address, Jan 20, 2017
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Week 118
Apr 26, 2019

DOL appeals decision of the District Court striking down it’s Association Health Plan Rule.

  • DOL appeals the Court’s decision that it exceeded its legal authority in issuing the final rule and that the bona fide association and working owner provisions of the rule is contrary to law. 
  • On April 29th DOL announced it would not take any action against any employer who relied upon the rule before the Court’s decision, implying that employers may not rely upon the rule during the pendency of its appeal.
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DOL, Health Care
Week 115
Apr 01, 2019

DOL’s proposed regulation on the standard to determine who is a joint employer under the Fair Labor Standards Act would upend decades of worker protections.

  • The Trump Department of Labor issued a proposed rule interpreting the joint employment standard which undermines the worker protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
  • This proposal ultimately shields large companies that outsource jobs from liability when faced with worker violations, and places them on smaller, often thinly-capitalized, local businesses.
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DOL, Joint Employer
Week 114
Mar 29, 2019

DOL proposes to amend the definitions of “regular rate” for purposes of computing overtime pay under the FLSA.

  • While several of the DOL’s proposes are not controversial, the Department proposes to amend the regulations concerning call back pay and payments similar to call back pay is troublesome.
  • The DOL proposes to delete the current references to the frequency of call by payments and only allow call in pay to be included in the calculation of regular rate of pay when it is “prearranged”. DOL ignores the reality of low wage workers who will accommodate frequent and last-minute scheduling changes without “prearrangement” and therefore will be paid less.
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DOL, Overtime, Wage and Hour
Mar 29, 2019

U.S. District Court issued decision in a case challenging the Labor Department’s association health plan (AHP) rule.

  • The court concluded that DOL exceeded its legal authority in issuing the final rule and that the bonafide association and working owner provisions of the final regulation is contrary to law.
  • The assocation and working owner provisions have been set aside under the Administrative Procedures Act, and the final rule has been sent back to DOL to determine how severability provisions would affect it.
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DOL, Health Care
Week 111
Mar 08, 2019

Labor Secretary’s calendar shows few meetings with labor, but many meetings with industry representatives.

  • A FOIA request made by American Oversight reveal that in the first eight months of Labor Secretary Alex Acosta's tenure, he was scheduled to meet with corporate representatives 146 times and labor unions only 43 times.
  • The favor shown toward corporate interests bring into question DOL's commitment to upholding the Department's mission to advocating on behalf of wage-earners and their families.
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DOL, Unions
Mar 07, 2019

The Trump Administration proposed new rules backtracking substantially on the overtime pay expansion released by the Obama Administration.

  • The proposed rule expands overtime coverage for employees who make less than $35,308 per year, but that falls substantially short of the $51,064 that workers would get under the Obama Administration's threshold.
  • Preliminary calculations by the Economic Policy Institute suggest that over half of the workers who would have gotten new or strengthened overtime protections under the 2016 rule are not covered by the new rule.
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DOL, Overtime
Week 110
Mar 01, 2019

Trump DOL is reportedly close to proposing a new overtime regulation that is far weaker than the regulation proposed by the Obama DOL.

  • Caving in to demands from corporate lobbyists, the Trump DOL will eviscerate overtime coverage compared with the prior rule.
  • This regulation will provide protection for only half as many workers as the Obama regulation.
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DOL, Overtime
Week 108
Feb 15, 2019

Trump’s DOL issued an opinion letter that would allow employers to assign tipped workers virtually unlimited amounts of non-tip generating work, while paying $2.13 an hour

  • The opinion letter overturns the longstanding 80/20 rule which requires employers to pay the full minimum wage for any non-tip producing side work that exceeds 20 percent of their time.
  • The opinion letter allows employers to take advantage of their staff by paying them only $2.13 an hour for duties that do not produce tips.
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DOL, Tipped Workers, Wage and Hour
Week 105
Jan 25, 2019

OSHA repeals part of a 2016 rule designed to collect data on serious worker injuries.

  • This rule requires large employers in high hazard occupations to electronically submit to OSHA detailed injury data on serious worker injuries.
  • This roll back will allow employers with dangerous work sites to essentially hide workplace injuries, undermining OSHA' own efforts to promote public health and prevent injuries on the job.
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DOL, Health and Safety, OSHA
Week 103
Jan 09, 2019

The number of OSHA inspectors has fallen to the lowest number in the 48 year history of the agency.

  • Over 5,000 workers were killed on the job last year, and over 2 million suffered a serious injury.
  • With such low staffing, it will take over 150 years for OSHA to visit every workplace just once, which jeopardizes worker safety and health, especially in low wage, high-hazard jobs.
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DOL, Enforcement, Health and Safety, OSHA
Week 93
Nov 02, 2018

Trump Administration proposes a regulation that would give states broad authority to make unemployment insurance applicants submit to suspicion-less mandatory drug testing.

  • The Department of Labor released a proposed rule giving states broad authority to conduct mandatory drug testing of unemployment benefit claimants and recipients.
  • These proposed regulations are a costly solution to a problem that doesn't even exist. States who enact programs pursuant to these regulations could well be running afoul of the Fourth Amendment.
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DOL, drug testing, Unemployment Insurance
Week 92
Oct 22, 2018

Trump DOL proposes rule to allow many more unassociated employers to joint together to provide retirement plans

  • The DOL’s proposal would significantly relax the standards for determining whether a group or association of employers has sufficient “commonality” to sponsor a single retirement plan. The commonality requirement has been imposed by DOL to ensure the integrity of plans. 
  • A relaxing of the commonality requirement could open the door to plans that are not financially secure. Workers may not have the retirement benefits promised. 
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DOL, Retirement
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