I've been in training all week. Lots and lots of reading about strategic planning and how it all relates to an agency's over all mission. This brought me to the Department of Labor's mission and their mission statement:

The Department of Labor fosters and promotes the welfare of the job seekers, wage earners, and retirees of the United States by improving their working conditions, advancing their opportunities for profitable employment, protecting their retirement and health care benefits, helping employers find workers, strengthening free collective bargaining, and tracking changes in employment, prices, and other national economic measurements. In carrying out this mission, the Department administers a variety of Federal labor laws including those that guarantee workers’ rights to safe and healthful working conditions; a minimum hourly wage and overtime pay; freedom from employment discrimination; unemployment insurance; and other income support.

I highlighted the pieces in the mission statement most important to this blog post. After sitting through 3 days of strategic planning and hearing all about how fantastic the Department of Labor's Strategic plan is, it really got me to wondering how it is that DoL behaves like this:

A copy of a eleventh-hour proposed rule that would make it harder to set new safety rules limiting workers' exposure to chemicals on the job has been obtained by the Washington Post.

The Labor Department has refused to discuss or disclose the proposal, which has spurred anger and condemnation from unions, Democrats in Congress and public health scientists. They claim the rule is a "midnight regulation" that will block the next administration's efforts to reduce workers illnesses and deaths.

Okay, the Post caught my attention, it's true, they did. But here's the money quote for me from the same article:

The proposal calls for adding another procedural step and round of challenges before the department can consider regulations for a workplace toxin. It also challenges the agency's longstanding assumption that it should set limits low enough to protect workers who could be exposed to a toxin every day on the job and work for 45 years.

Pretty freaking cool, huh? Well, take a look at the Strategic Plan for the DoL, Performance Goal 3A:

Improve workplace safety and health through compliance assistance and enforcement of occupational safety and health regulations and standards.

The Department's efforts to protect workers' safety and health are built on the foundation of a strong, fair, and effective enforcement program and outreach, education, compliance assistance and voluntary cooperative programs. Although the Department seeks to assist the large majority of employers who want to meet their obligations under its worker protection laws, it will direct its enforcement resources to those who expose employees to serious hazards. DOL will conduct its inspection programs to ensure that they identify the most hazardous workplaces and make the best use of inspection resources. DOL will also continue to make available effective compliance assistance programs and tools and offer employers and employees opportunities to participate in a variety of voluntary cooperative programs. Through these efforts DOL strives to improve workplace safety and health protections and prevent occupational injuries, illnesses and fatalities.

The Department will continue to use a balanced approach to protect the safety and health of America's workers. The Department's OSHA regulations and standards will continue to be developed or revised under the agency's focused regulatory agenda. DOL will continue to direct inspections and outreach at establishments and industries with the highest injury, illness, and fatality rates and will respond to complaints of serious workplace hazards. As part of the Department's outreach effort, selected sites with high injury and illness rates will be notified in writing of available services for addressing workplace hazards. Small business employers who receive notification will be provided an opportunity to seek assistance through the free, DOL-funded State Consultation Program. These efforts will be supplemented by National and Local Emphasis Programs designed to target unsafe conditions or high hazard industries. To complement its enforcement and standard-setting activities, the Department will provide compliance assistance, outreach, and training for employers and employees. DOL also offers a variety of cooperative programs including the Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP), the Alliance Program, the Strategic Partnership Program, the Consultation Program and its Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP), under which employers, employees, and other stakeholders work with the Department to improve workplace safety and health.

Experience demonstrates that the implementation of VPP principles results in a significant reduction in injury and illness rates. Overall, VPP participants experience an average of 50 percent fewer injuries and illnesses than non-VPP sites within their respective industries, and continued participation in VPP maintains these results. Both a 2005 Gallup study and OSHA's experiences in the Challenge Pilot support these findings.

First off, check out those bolded areas. I went through and pointed out something a little odd. The Department of Labor's mission:

fosters and promotes the welfare of the job seekers, wage earners, and retirees of the United States by improving their working conditions

It says nothing about the employer. Instead, the goals and objectives in their strategic plan does. It means that the Department of Labor has a mission that no longer relates to their strategic plan. That mis-alignment needs to be adjusted and how is DoL adjusting this mis-alignment, well, by suggesting new regulations to curtail the ability of workers to obtain safe workplaces, again, from the Post:

Political appointees at the Department of Labor are moving with unusual speed to push through in the final months of the Bush administration a rule making it tougher to regulate workers' on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins.

>snip<

The change would address long-standing complaints from businesses that the government overestimates the risk posed by job exposure to chemicals.

The rule would also require the agency to take an extra step before setting new limits on chemicals in the workplace by allowing an additional round of challenges to agency risk assessments.

The department's speed in trying to make the regulatory change contrasts with its reluctance to alter workplace safety rules over the past 7 1/2 years. In that time, the department adopted only one major health rule for a chemical in the workplace, and it did so under a court order.

DoL no longer sees it's mission as one of protecting workers. It's mission is:

Today, that mission continues in a vastly different, global context. While the interests of wage earners remain a core value for the Department, its policies and programs have evolved to address the emerging needs of workers and employers in a competitive 21st Century economy.

I suppose I should be thrilled that DoL can have the balls to tell us they intend to screw us and do so right there, in their strategic plan, but you know, I'm not thrilled. Instead, I just feel screwed and, not in a good way.

So, let's give a few cheers to Elaine Chao, Secretary of the Department of Labor. PSSSTT, the Cheer here is, Shame,Shame Shame Elaine. Shame on you.

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I'm a huge fan of the stuff that Unbossed does, especially the stuff that Shirah is able to pull out of GAO reports and other legal documents that I'm either too lazy to sift through or too bored to try. Today, Shirah decided to go out on a limb and call Labor for not regulating wages and hours like they're supposed to. Here's a teaser from Shirah at Unbossed:

The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division is charged with collecting underpaid and unpaid wages and enforcing violations of the minimum wage and overtime laws (plus prohibitions on child labor). In addition to collecting wages owed, the WHD has the power to prosecute employers in court and to assess and collect penalties from employers as well as other sanctions.

According to a new GAO study that is so not how itis done in this administration. The way it now works is the employer fails to pay wages, admits it wasn't paying, says it doesn't have th emoney to pay, and the WHD tells the law violating employer, "Aw, Gee! Sorry to Bother You." And then the WHD tells the victim to find a lawyer and sue.

GAO identified case studies that show WHD inadequately investigated complaints from low-wage and minimum wage workers alleging that employers failed to pay the federal minimum wage, required overtime, and failed to pay employees their last paychecks. Examples of inadequate WHD responses to complaints included instances where WHD inappropriately rejected complaints, failed to adequately investigate complaints, or neglected to investigate until it was too late. The table below provides examples of several case studies.

Here are some examples from the new GAO study. GAO found that there has been:

(1) a decrease in enforcement activities at WHD amidst a decrease in investigative staff,

(2) WHD’s failure to make effective use of its current compliance tools and strategies, and

(3) the agency’s inability to demonstrate performance results.

The stories of the people hurt by these failues are clear examples of harming the least among us.

Night attendant at assisted living facility/ Ohio

• A homeless woman receiving free room and board while working as a night attendant at a nursing home alleged her employer had failed to pay her wages for an entire year.

• According to WHD, the employer admitted it had failed to pay any wages to the night attendant and considered the room and board to be pay, but stated it did not have any money to pay the back wages.

• WHD dropped the case and advised the night attendant of her right to file a private lawsuit.

• The employer was still in business as of June 2008.

Pool maintenance technician/ Florida

Last paycheck – minimum wage

• Pool maintenance technician alleged that he did not receive his final paycheck from his employer.

• Employer admitted to the WHD investigator that they did not pay the employee’s last paycheck but refused to pay employee.

• WHD dropped case and advised the worker of his right to file a private lawsuit.

High tail it on over to Unbossed for the rest of Shirah's anlysis. It's worth the time. Oh and as per usual, Shame On Elaine.

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I kept forgetting to add Shame on Elaine to my blog roll, but I did it today. Not only that, I thought I'd pull in just a sample

Though one of America Samoa’s largest employers only pays workers an average of $3.60 an hour, Elaine Chao’s Department thinks that’s adequate – and even goes as far as arguing that increasing the minimum wage “would have damaging effects on the economies of American Samoa and the Northern Marianas

You know, the Northern Marianas, the place that Abramoff championed

For those who may not recall, the Northern Marianas recieved special treatment from the Bush administration because of lobbying and bribery efforts by Abramoff that directly benefitted Bob Ney, Tom Delay, John Doolittle, Richard Pombo and other feloneous Republicans. Perks included free travel, money, meals and, very likely, tropical sexcapades. The Islands businesses, who have a documented history of engaging in slave labor, forced prostitution and employer-mandated abortions, are allowed to use the "Made in the USA" label, despite not being in the US and not adhering to US labor standards for age, overtime pay, safe working conditions or minimum wages.

So, Mitch's wife seriously continues to support big business over simple human decency. With Hillary running on her husband's record, does that mean that Mitch is also running on his wife's? I think so. I think her support of slave wages in the US territory of the Northern Marianas should be one of those chains hung around Mitch's neck.

Hey, Elaine and Mitch, I can't wait to fix all the problems the two of you have created. I guess that's what we all have to do, clean up the mess Republicans have made of everything. Including extending all labor laws to all US territories or start allowing them to obtain statehood or sovereinty. We aren't an empire, you did know that Mitch and Elaine, right?

Need more on slave labor issues in the Norther Marianas, I highly recommend reading No Bodies Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy by John Bowe

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