(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Worker protection agencies need more funding to enforce labor laws and protect workers [1]

['Posted', 'July', 'At Pm']

Date: 2024-11

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the widespread dangers and injustices that workers face every day. For too long, workers have been forced to work in unsafe conditions, suffered from excessive wage theft, and been subjected to discrimination and harassment. While laws aimed at deterring these workplace abuses already exist, enforcement efforts have been woefully insufficient because the agencies tasked with protecting workers are chronically under-resourced. As Congress and the Biden administration work on budget spending and COVID-19 recovery legislation, there is an urgent opportunity to correct these inadequacies in our labor law system and boost funding for enforcement agencies.

The Department of Labor (DOL) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) enforce major worker protection laws, including the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and the National Labor Relations Act. These statutes guarantee U.S. workers a minimum wage, a safe and healthy workplace, and the right to collective bargaining, respectively, but weak enforcement has led to pervasive and repeated violations of these laws. Despite inflation, a growing workforce, and increasingly complex workplaces, funding for agencies like the Wage and Hour Division (WHD), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the NLRB has largely remained stagnant over the last decade, as shown in Figure A.

Figure A Funding for worker protection agencies, fiscal years 2006–2021 (in thousands) Fiscal Years Wage and Hour Division Occupational Safety and Health Administration National Labor Relations Board 2006 165,685 472,427 249,745 2007 173,185 486,925 251,507 2008 175,658 486,000 251,762 2009 193,092 513,042 262,595 2010 227,606 558,620 283,400 2011 227,606 558,620 282,800 2012 227,491 564,788 278,306 2013 227,061 535,246 263,748 2014 224,330 552,247 274,224 2015 227,500 552,787 274,224 2016 227,500 552,787 274,224 2017 227,500 552,787 274,224 2018 227,500 552,787 274,224 2019 229,000 557,233 274,224 2020 242,000 581,233 274,224 2021 246,000 591,233 274,224 Chart Data Download data The data below can be saved or copied directly into Excel. The data underlying the figure. Source: Department of Labor, Budget, Performance, and Planning reports, fiscal years 2008-2021, downloadable from https://www.dol.gov/general/budget, accessed July 23, 2021. National Labor Relations Board, Performance Budget Justification reports, fiscal years 2010–2021, downloadable from https://www.nlrb.gov/resources/performance-budget-justification, accessed July 23, 2021. Share on Facebook Tweet this chart Embed Copy the code below to embed this chart on your website. Download image

In large part, these agencies’ inability to enforce these statutes fully can be linked to insufficient resources, which impedes the hiring of more investigators or inspectors—staff who play critical roles in initiating investigations and ensuring compliance. As shown in Figure B, the number of private-sector workers per WHD investigators and federal OSHA inspectors has largely increased since 1979. This means that each investigator or inspector is “responsible” for far more employees than they were four decades ago.

Figure B The Wage and Hour Division and Occupational Safety and Health Administration are responsible for more workers than they were 40 years ago : Number of private-sector workers per investigators, 1979-2019 Fiscal Year Wage and Hour Division Occupational Safety and Health Administration 1979 81,717 61,642 1980 84,215 60,710 1981 94,420 69,916 1982 96,685 88,106 1983 96,019 76,816 1984 102,192 90,007 1985 101,383 93,782 1986 108,196 100,761 1987 106,272 101,166 1988 109,526 90,432 1989 110,348 103,119 1990 115,782 90,277 1991 123,495 93,952 1992 128,529 97,036 1993 136,072 103,699 1994 140,628 111,831 1995 142,663 117,053 1996 150,856 126,415 1997 128,473 115,368 1998 131,717 120,581 1999 135,355 125,334 2000 136,859 133,621 2001 137,181 129,506 2002 142,799 126,090 2003 150,348 123,117 2004 164,059 128,507 2005 170,209 137,627 2006 178,208 141,175 2007 184,926 142,791 2008 184,413 144,023 2009 143,857 138,437 2010 123,498 125,808 2011 126,378 122,201 2012 123,427 130,911 2013 128,816 134,777 2014 139,973 138,553 2015 140,193 147,923 2016 145,657 149,023 2017 157,741 160,558 2018 175,008 179,303 2019 189,878 198,532 Chart Data Download data The data below can be saved or copied directly into Excel. The data underlying the figure. Source: EPI calculations from the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor’s data on investigators on board from 1979–2019, the AFL-CIO’s “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, 2021” data on Occupational Safety and Health Administration federal compliance inspectors from 1979-2019, and Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data on the total number of employees covered by unemployment insurance programs in the U.S from 1979-2019. Share on Facebook Tweet this chart Embed Copy the code below to embed this chart on your website. Download image

For example, there were 61,642 workers for every federal OSHA inspector in 1979, but this number tripled to 198,532 by 2019. That is 19 times the International Labor Organization’s recommendation of one inspector per 10,000 workers. Even more concerning, OSHA had a record-low number of investigators in 2020 before the onset of the pandemic, which contributed to the sharp decline in agency investigations. OSHA conducted only 21,674 inspections in fiscal year (FY) 2020, compared with 33,393 in FY2019 and 32,023 in FY2018.

This chronic under-resourcing of enforcement agencies has been detrimental to workers’ wellbeing. In 2019, 275 workers died each day from workplace injuries, with Latinx and Black workers—who face more dangerous working conditions—having higher risks of dying on the job. Further, nearly 3.5 million workers suffered workplace injuries or illnesses, as reported by employers. While these statistics are already staggering, they likely underestimate the severity of issues workers face. In fact, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the majority of employers still fail to report workplace injuries due to OSHA’s limited resources and procedures.

Unsurprisingly, the Wage and Hour Division’s enforcement has also suffered from a steady decline in critical staffing. In 1979, there were 81,717 workers for every wage and hour investigator, but that figure more than doubled to 189,878 by 2019. Further, between 2010 to 2019, the number of investigators shrunk by 25% from 1,035 to only 780, and staff interviewed by GAO directly attributed these declines to the agency’s funding levels. Consequently, officials reported taking various steps to stretch its already-thin resources and staffing, including by dropping “low-priority” cases.

Insufficient enforcement also burdens workers with remarkable monetary costs. A 2017 report estimates that in the 10 most populous states in the country, workers lose $8 billion each year to wage theft, averaging $3,300 of lost wages annually per year-round worker. In sharp contrast, DOL and state departments of labor and attorneys general in 2016 recovered just $414 million in back wages on behalf of workers. A recent report from the Peterson Institute for International Economics confirms that the DOL’s weak enforcement system does little to deter wage theft. The paper reports that since many employers are acutely aware of enforcement agencies’ stretched resources, they expect fewer investigations of labor law violations and minimal penalties if caught.

A look at funding and hiring levels at the NLRB, the agency that ensures that workers have the right to form a union, reveals similarly concerning trends: Enforcement continues to take a backseat in agencies’ priorities and has not kept up with the growth in the workforce. As shown in Figure C, despite an increase in the private-sector workforce, the number of full-time employees at the NLRB has dropped by nearly 31% from 1,789 to 1,320 between 2006 and 2019. During the same timeframe, the number of covered workers per NLRB staff increased by 50%, from one full-time employee per 74,809 workers to one full-time employee per 112,201 workers. Further, staffing levels at regional offices, which typically handle the intake of complaints filed by workers, dropped by 33% between 2010 and 2019. Relatedly, a report by the GAO released in March 2021 found a severe decline in morale across the NLRB, with only about one-third of employees agreeing that the agency has sufficient resources, while nearly half admitted to having an unreasonable workload. Unfortunately, the deliberate underfunding of the NLRB is symptomatic of widespread neglect of the importance of enforcement agencies.

Unionization efforts have also faced sustained attacks, as weak enforcement allows illegal conduct to flourish. Our research has shown that employers are charged with violating federal law in 41.5% of all union election campaigns, and one out of five union election campaigns involves a charge that a worker was illegally fired for union activity. Consequently, union elections today are characterized by employer intimidation and in no way reflect the democratic process guaranteed by the National Labor Relations Act.

Figure C The National Labor Relations Board is now responsible for far more workers than it was a decade ago : Number of private-sector workers per NLRB full-time employee, 2007-2019 Fiscal Years National Labor Relations Board 2007 78,292 2008 82,804 2009 80,784 2010 78,321 2011 77,076 2012 80,303 2013 83,888 2014 84,853 2015 87,896 2016 92,969 2017 98,064 2018 110,790 2019 112,201 Chart Data Download data The data below can be saved or copied directly into Excel. The data underlying the figure. Source: EPI calculations from the National Labor Relation Board's data on full-time employees from 2006-2019 and Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data on the total number of employees covered by unemployment insurance programs in the U.S from 2006-2019. Share on Facebook Tweet this chart Embed Copy the code below to embed this chart on your website. Download image

While recent trends in enforcement funding are dismal, there is renewed political will to prioritize the just and timely enforcement of our nation’s labor laws. The Biden administration has signaled its intent to escalate investigations of workplace abuses and has put forth proposals that would significantly boost agencies’ funding. In fact, the Biden proposal sets aside at least $2.1 billion for worker protections, a significant step towards meeting the needs of today’s workforce. As we continue on the road to recovering from the pandemic, stronger enforcement of labor laws should remain central to discussions about reviving the economy and uplifting the working class.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.epi.org/blog/worker-protection-agencies-need-more-funding-to-enforce-labor-laws-and-protect-workers/

Published and (C) by Common Dreams
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0..

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.