| | | | |  | | By Nick Niedzwiadek | With help from Shayna Greene
| | | FOIA FOIBLES: The branch of the Labor Department that oversees federal contractors has been mired in a public records saga that predates the pandemic and has only gotten messier of late. In 2019, a reporter for Reveal, a part of the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting, submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for Type 2 EEO-1 data — a wonky report that contains information about the demographics of a company’s workforce broken down into broad job categories — filed by contractors dating back to 2016. These reports could be potentially used to glimpse at how some of the country’s largest employers, many of whom do business with the U.S. government, rate in terms of hiring and promoting women and people of color. The situation has put the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs in a bind, one with a strong potential to infuriate businesses and their Republican allies that this corporate diversity data will be made public. At the same time it is facing a FOIA lawsuit for not turning over these reports, and fulfilling the request stands to be a gargantuan task for an office that’s puny by federal government standards. “This is a huge administrative lift for what is a very small agency,” Lauren Hicks, an attorney at Ogletree Deakins and a former OFCCP district director, told POLITICO. “This is absolutely unprecedented in scope and size.” Last August, OFCCP announced that individual employers could object to the release of their EEO-1 reports with the original deadline to do so in the fall. Since then it has repeatedly extended that timeline — including multiple times in February alone — as it figures out how to handle the thousands of objections that have already been filed and give contractors ample notice before their data is released. House Education and Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx recently urged OFCCP to extend the deadline and increase outreach to applicable contractors. As it stands, employers have until March 3 to file objections. A DOL spokesperson said OFCCP “has devoted significant resources to implement a process to review a voluminous amount of material” and that the agency moved the deadline to March “to give non-objectors more time to respond and to ensure the accuracy of the list of non-objecting contractors.” Neither the reporter, Will Evans nor Reveal returned a request to comment. GOOD MORNING. It’s Wednesday, Feb 22. Welcome back to Weekly Shift, your go-to tipsheet on labor and employment-related immigration. Send feedback, tips, and exclusives to EMueller@politico.com and NNiedzwiadek@politico.com. Follow us on Twitter at @eleanor_mueller and @nickniedz. NOW ABOARD: We’re excited to say OLIVIA OLANDER is joining Nick on POLITICO’s small-but-mighty labor team. Olivia most recently worked as a reporter on the breaking news desk and contributed to Illinois Playbook. She is a graduate of basketball powerhouse Northwestern University, and she’ll be moving to D.C. from her favorite city, Chicago, very soon. Drop her a line at OOlander@politico.com or @oliviaolanderr.
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| | | FOXX LEFT ON READ: The top Republican on the Education and Workforce committee sent a letter to Labor Secretary Marty Walsh expressing “deep dissatisfaction” with the agency’s response to Republicans’ requests for information. Foxx (R-N.C.) wrote that what the committee has received so far is “woefully insufficient” and verging on disdainful. In particular she said a message from DOL late last month, which amounted to a compilation of previous letters, was “utterly disrespectful, demonstrated bad faith, and was a waste of time.” “During the last Congress, DOL attempted to evade Committee Republicans’ oversight inquiries. That will no longer be the case,” Foxx warned. More hill news: “Key Senate committee takes first step toward tackling health workforce shortages,” from STAT News.
| | | CHILD LABOR: A major food sanitation provider paid $1.5 million in penalties for employing over 100 minors in hazardous jobs, the Labor Department announced Friday. Investigators found 102 children between 13 and 17 years old working across more than a dozen meat processing plants cleaned by Wisconsin-based Packers Sanitation Services Inc. Many of the nation’s largest food and meat processors contract with PSSI to sanitize their production facilities. PSSI said it has a "zero-tolerance policy" against employing minors and that none of the workers flagged by DOL investigators are still with the company. It also appeared to blame fraudulent documents for the problem.
| | | TAX TROUBLES: Remote work may be threatened by tax incentives local governments used to lure companies, Bloomberg reports. “Of the billions in tax incentives granted to US companies every year by cities and states, many agreements require workers to come into the office some of the time, or at least live in the region. … Now governments are deciding whether to crack down or rewrite the rules entirely.” More workplace news: “For $60,000, These Colleges Help Older Workers Plot Encore Careers,” from The Wall Street Journal. Even more workplace news: “A four-day workweek pilot was so successful most firms say they won’t go back,” from The Washington Post.
| | | | JOIN POLITICO ON 3/1 TO DISCUSS AMERICAN PRIVACY LAWS: Americans have fewer privacy rights than Europeans, and companies continue to face a minefield of competing state and foreign legislation. There is strong bipartisan support for a federal privacy bill, but it has yet to materialize. Join POLITICO on 3/1 to discuss what it will take to get a federal privacy law on the books, potential designs for how this type of legislation could protect consumers and innovators, and more. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | WARRIOR MET WORKERS RETURN: Nearly two years after going on strike, unionized mine workers for Warrior Met Coal are set to return in early March — without a contract deal. “The move would allow union members to resume working while the union and Warrior Met work out a new agreement,” according to Al.com. “The date would be 23 months and one day after the strike began, believed to be the longest in Alabama history.” More union news: “Tesla Workers Say Twitter Shadowbanned Their Union Account,” from Vice. RIP — “Thomas Donahue, Influential Leader of Organized Labor, Dies at 94,” from The New York Times.
| | | N.Y. LEAVE PROTECTION LAW TAKES EFFECT: A New York law went into effect this week that strengthens protections against employers for penalizing workers who take legally protected absences. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill in November ensuring that employers cannot “threaten, penalize, discriminate, or retaliate against employees for using absences protected under federal, state, or local law,” according to the state Labor Department. Protected absences include those related to sickness, disability, pregnancy, caregiving obligations, domestic violence leave, jury duty, voting, and donating blood. Penalties for initial violations can be up to $10,000 and further violations can cost up to $20,000.
| | | UKRAINIANS IN THE CRACKS: Thousands of Ukrainian immigrants living in the U.S. could lose their legal status in April because of a lack of a long-term plan from the government. The issue stems from the surge of Ukranians who came to the U.S. when Russia first invaded, forcing the Biden administration to scramble. That resulting patchwork of immigration programs “has a gap: a roughly 10-day period last April during which Ukrainians were given one year to live in the U.S. That reprieve will soon end, and the U.S. government hasn’t announced plans to renew it,” The Wall Street Journal reports. There are roughly 10,000 Ukranians who could fall into this legal limbo. Similarly, tens of thousands of people who fled Afghanistan after their government fell in 2021 will begin to see their status expire in the summer and fall. More immigration news: “Jeffries visits border one day after McCarthy,” from The Hill.
| | | — “How you feel about your job affects how well you parent your kids,” from The Washington Post. — “At job fairs in China, employers are thrifty and applicants timid,” from Reuters. — “DeSantis, pointing to newly passed law, wants judge to toss migrant lawsuit,” from POLITICO Pro. — “‘A race against time’: U.S. tech layoffs put foreign workers on ticking clock,” from Los Angeles Times. — “Striking Workers Just Won a Historic Union Contract At Book Giant HarperCollins,” from Vice. — “Home Depot to spend $1 billion more on hourly workers,” from CNN. — “Hochul's plan to tie minimum wage to inflation draws criticism,” from POLITICO Pro. THAT’S ALL FOR SHIFT! | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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