Worker Policy Watch
Your source for accurate and reliable information on how federal policies are shaping workers’ rights—and what’s at stake for working people nationwide under the Trump administration.
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Department of Labor Plans to Begin Deregulatory Agenda
DOL plans to roll back child labor and health and safety protections, as well as wage and hour protections for home care and tipped workers. It also plans to weaken the delivery of unemployment insurance and the protection of private data shared when people apply for UI.
Impact:
The impact of these regulatory rollbacks will be felt across virtually all industries in this country. They will particularly endanger the health and safety of youth workers and mine workers, and will weaken wage protections for vulnerable health care and restaurant workers.
Departments of Justice and Interior Lose Thousands of Staff to Buyout Offers
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Department of the Interior are set to lose thousands of employees through buyout incentives and voluntary early retirement programs since the Trump-Musk DOGE program began. DOJ is set to lose some 4,500 employees. Roughly 11 percent of Interior employees have accepted buyouts, amounting to about 7,500 workers—more than 1,000 staffers each from the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and Bureau of Reclamation.
Impact:
While these buyout and early retirement programs are technically voluntary, they come in the coercive context of widespread funding cuts, layoffs, and threats of additional layoffs. Many federal workers are taking these offers rather than risk being laid off later. Meanwhile, the public loses out on the critical services provided by these workers—including civil rights and employment law enforcement work at DOJ—whom in many cases the administration does not plan to replace.
DOGE Cancels Plans to Close 10 NLRB Field Offices
In February, DOGE claimed that it would direct the General Services Administration (GSA) to terminate the leases of 10 local field offices of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). On June 17, GSA reversed course and said that the offices would remain open.
Impact:
The NLRB is the sole enforcer of our nation’s bedrock labor law, and workers rely on local field offices and their staff to adjudicate disputes and enforce the law. Trump has sought to gut the board’s capacity, including through the unprecedented removal of Board Member Gwynne Wilcox. Absent an effective NLRB, workers are even more vulnerable to employer violations of their right to organize.
Trump Administration Tries to Make It Easier to Fire Federal Employees
The Office of Personnel Management issued a memorandum directing managers to give their supervisees lower performance ratings and move to fire them more quickly in spite of civil service protections.
Impact:
This is yet another piece of the administration's plan to hollow out federal agencies, get rid of employees, and eventually fill those spots with partisan loyalists.
National Archives and Records Administration Lays Off 100 Workers
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) told employees that it would cut about 3 percent of its staff, or about 100 employees.
Impact:
NARA is the federal agency tasked with preserving governmental and historical records, including those housed at presidential libraries. It performs an important transparency function, ensuring that records of events and government decisions are owned by and shared with the public.
Department of Education Asks Fired Workers If and When They Can Return to Their Jobs
A federal judge ordered reinstatement of more than 1,400 DOE employees found to be wrongfully terminated; DOE has reached out to them to see who can come back and when.
Impact:
The administration is appealing this ruling, and there is no confirmation that anyone has been brought back yet. This is all part of the administration's plan to eliminate the DOE.
DOL is Considering Stripping Home Care Workers of Rights to Minimum Wage and Overtime
This workforce, which is largely populated by women of color and immigrants, was finally granted federal minimum wage and overtime rights in 2015.
Impact:
Despite enjoying these rights for a decade, this administration clearly has no respect for the grueling and important work done by the over two million home care workers in this country. If DOL repeals these rights, home care workers will see less pay and be forced to work longer hours, endangering their physical health and safety and possibly the health and safety of the people they care for.
Food and Drug Administration Announces It No Longer Recognizes Federal Labor Unions and Will Not Bargain With Them
Workers in these unions, many of whom are facing layoffs, no longer have access to a grievance procedure or representation from their unions.
Impact:
The administration is trying to remove all union rights from tens of thousands of employees in this agency so it can fire them at will, contrary to federal law and their collective bargaining agreements.
DOL Secretary Chavez-DeRemer Announces Plans to Cut DOL’s Workforce by an Additional 4,000 People
When asked how such a gutted staff could adequately enforce the laws it is charged with, Secretary Chavez-DeRemer stated they will focus more on "compliance assistance" to make sure employers are followoing the law.
Impact:
Compliance assistance may work for employers of good will, who usually are following the law anyway, but it does not compel low-road employers into obeying the law the way that strategic and strong law enforcement does.
DOL Launches Opinion Letter Program Across Five Agencies, Including the Wage and Hour Division and OSHA
Litigants or potential litigants can write to the relevant agency describing the facts of a case and ask for its opinion on whether or not particular actions and scenarios are permitted. This is a program used almost exclusively by employers, who usually get favorable opinions from the Trump DOL.
Impact:
Although not binding in court, opinion letters are often granted deference by judges, and if they are being issued with a bias toward employers, such letters can be used as a type of "get out of jail free" card to avoid liability.