Paul DeCamp, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in the Bloomberg Law Daily Labor Report, in “Prolonged Shutdown Endangers Trump’s Labor Department Agenda,” by Parker Purifoy.
Following is an excerpt:
The extended government shutdown has the potential to shorten the lifespan of President Donald Trump’s labor agenda, holding up highly anticipated rule changes and leaving backlogs that will slow services for weeks after federal funding is restored.
The Trump Labor Department set out a sweeping agenda to revamp standards on joint employer classification and minimum and overtime wages, and to launch immigration enforcement initiatives. Many of the planned changes would reverse Biden-era DOL policies. …
Regulations Put on Ice
This summer’s de-regulatory measures also included more than two dozen policies at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Mine Safety and Health Administration targeting rules that require employers to record work-related musculoskeletal disorders and govern miners’ exposure to diesel particulate matter.
The DOL’s skeleton crew can work on rulemaking, but they will likely be occupied with the work deemed to pertain to imminently dangerous situations, said Paul DeCamp, a wage and hour attorney with Epstein Becker Green.
According to DOL’s newest contingency plan, there are 3,396 employees exempted from furlough because they’re presidential appointees, paid through finances aside from appropriations, or are performing duties implied by law to protect life and property.
The solicitor’s office said in the plan it wouldn’t be able to support the rulemaking process during the shutdown. …
“I don’t think they have the time and the bandwidth in current circumstances to be working on regulations,” DeCamp said. …
Enforcement, Safety Backlog
The DOL has also halted almost all of its enforcement work, investigations, and inspections. …
DeCamp, former DOL Wage and Hour administrator under President George W. Bush, said agency employees and leadership will have to do some kind of “triage” of the case backlog when the shutdown is over. Cases that aren’t deemed vital because they don’t impact many workers or involve egregious violations of the law could be pushed down expedited resolution pathways.
“How aggressively the department does that will determine how long it takes to clear the backlog,” DeCamp said.
Ramifications for employers that are caught in DOL investigations could include higher back-pay costs as the case drags on, although some employers cease unlawful practices once investigations start, DeCamp added.
“The investigations don’t just go away now because of the shutdown,” he said. “This isn’t a get out of jail free card. This is an opportunity to stop incurring any further liability and bring your practices into compliance.”
OSHA also suspended nonessential enforcement efforts, keeping only 460 out of 1,664 staff members to continue investigations into situations deemed as emergencies. It ceased all compliance assistance, training classes, rulemaking, and other outreach programs.
Workforce Considerations
The shutdown and ensuing backlog of work could also exacerbate staff tensions within the agency.
The DOL has lost thousands of workers through layoffs and various buyout programs, even after the department brought back last month around 100 workers who had accepted deferred resignation offers.
The DOL wasn’t impacted by layoffs that the administration initiated during the shutdown but DeCamp said that if workers continue on furlough for another month or two, staffers may begin leaving the government altogether.
People
Member of the Firm
