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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EEOC Drops Prosecution of Sheetz Convenience Stores, Which Refused to Hire Job Applicants who Did Not Pass Criminal Background Screening
Based on the legislatively codified theory of disparate impact, the EEOC and federal courts have long maintained that blanket policies refusing to hire people with criminal records disparately impacts workers of color and are therefore illegal. Trump has issued an executive order attempting to abolish disparate impact liability for discrimination.
Impact:
Nearly one in three adult workers has a criminal record. The EEOC has signaled that it will not enforce its own guidance on the use of arrests and convictions in hiring and that workers with records will get no protection from the agency.
While Peacefully Protesting Immigration Policy, SEIU California President is Forcibly Arrested and Injured in the Process
As part of its efforts to forcibly stop peaceful protest against immigration policies, this administration arrested a California labor leader, trying to chill his and others' right to assemble and protest.
Impact:
The militarization of the response to the protests in California is an attempt to scare people and organizations out of exercising their First Amendment rights.
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.
Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Allow It to Lay Off Workers at Over Two Dozen Agencies
Lower courts have temporarily stayed the administration's ability to fire thousands of workers who have civil service protections against termination absent just cause.
Impact:
If the administration is allowed to cut all these jobs, federal agencies will not be able to fulfill their missions, deliver the services, and enforce the laws they are charged with.
Trump Budget Proposes Shutting Down Chemical Safety Board
In the Trump administration’s budget submission to Congress, the President proposed shuttering the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB). Since 1998, the CSB has investigated the causes of petrochemical accidents and issues recommendations to plants, regulators, and business groups.
Impact:
If Congress passes this provision, closing the board will harm plant workers and neighboring communities, especially along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, who will be at greater risk of being injured or killed by a chemical explosion. Every worker deserves a safe workplace and federal agencies that take that value seriously.
Trump Proposes Cuts to Other Worker Protection Agencies
Trump wants to cut 4.7% of the NLRB's funding and reduce the EEOC's funding by $20 million.
Impact:
Both agencies have barely avoided furlough in the prior years because of low funding levels. If enacted, these cuts would all but ensure more "reductions in force" and lesser enforcement of civil rights laws and labor rights.
Trump Administration’s Proposed Budget Seeks to Further Cut DOL’s Workforce by 25%, Eliminate Job Corps Program, Shut Down OFCCP and Women’s Bureau, and Shift the Bureau of Labor Statistics to Department of Commerce
DOL has already lost close to a quarter of its staff, OFCCP has been stripped of much of its authority, and Job Corps is a program that helps train and place young adults at high risk of joblessness into good jobs. It's a program that overwhelmingly serves young people of color, including those who have aged out of the foster system and have nowhere to live or work, and no means to higher education without the program.
Impact:
All of these actions will continue to eviscerate DOL's ability to enforce the laws it is charged with and to protect the civil rights of the workforce.
Office of Personnel Management Details Plan to Make Federal Job Applicants Write Essays Praising Trump’s Executive Orders
OPM and this administration are establishing partisan loyalty tests as pre-requisites for federal hiring.
Impact:
This will further erode the non-partisan nature of the civil service, will discourage qualified applicants from applying for federal jobs, further weaken the federal workforce, and further erode public faith in the federal workforce.
OPM Announces Plans to Increase Recruiting from Religious Colleges and Universities, Homeschooling, and Other Conservative Faith-Based Groups
All of these categories are overwhelmingly populated by white, Christian people.
Impact:
The administration is trying to counteract the Biden administration's efforts to increase recruitment at historically Black and Hispanic colleges and universities.