Labor Department Budget Strengthens Worker Protection Enforcement

by James Parks, May 7, 2009

The Obama administration today unveiled its plan to fulfill a promise to make America’s workplaces safer and protect workers’ rights.

During the Labor Department’s first-ever online discussion about its budget, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said the department’s fiscal year 2010 budget, which totals $104.5 billion, will:

• Promote a “green” economic recovery;
• Begin to restore worker protection programs;
• Ensure that programs are transparent and accountable; and
• Promote diversity and stakeholder inclusion in every aspect of the department’s work.

As an example of the importance of worker protections, the budget allocates $1.7 billion in discretionary funds for worker-protection programs, a 10 percent increase from the prior year’s budget.

Under this budget, the Labor Department expects to hire 997 new employees and increase funding substantially for key agencies. For example, the Wage and Hour Division will receive $228 million, an increase of $35 million from the previous year, including funding to hire 200 new investigators.

Such funding represents a sharp contrast with Bush-era spending. A Government Accountability Office report released in March found the Wage and Hour Division, which is charged with enforcing minimum wage, overtime and child labor laws, had not enforced the laws, leaving low-income workers vulnerable to wage theft.

In response to an online question, Solis said:

I take the issues that were raised by the Government Accountability Office audit…very seriously. I am committed to ensuring that every worker is paid at least the minimum wage, those who work overtime are properly compensated, child labor laws are strictly enforced, and every worker is provided a safe and healthful environment. The department’s Wage and Hour Division already has begun the process of adding new investigators to its field offices to refocus the agency on these enforcement responsibilities.

The budget also includes funding for 160 new inspectors in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), many of whom will be bilingual to communicate with staff in the changing workplace.

Saying we need to provide training to “turn 20th century blue-collar jobs into 21st century green-collar jobs,” Solis said the 2010 budget includes $50 million to train workers for new green jobs, building on the $500 million provided for green jobs in the economic-recovery plan passed in February. The jobs are necessary, she said, to help “build a pathway out of poverty and into the middle class.”

Solis promised that workers hired for any projects funded under the economic recovery legislation “will have their rights respected and their workplaces will be safe and healthy.”‘

The administration also is planning to make the nation’s mines safer by increasing the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA) budget by nearly $7 million from the fiscal year 2009 level. The budget includes $1.3 million and 15 full-time employees in new funding to strengthen the agency’s metal and nonmetal enforcement program.

Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts applauded the proposed MSHA budget and said it is a “good step in the right direction toward restoring MSHA’s oversight capabilities.” But he added:

We know that there is much more that must be done to change the culture of the agency away from one that coddles rogue operators to one that puts the welfare of coal miners first. We urge the appointment of an Undersecretary of Labor who shares that objective, and we look forward to working closely with the administration to ensure that it is achieved. 

To learn more about the Labor Department budget, click here. To read an overview of the overall budget document, click here.

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