With Oregon Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle running for Congress, the statewide position that oversees the Bureau of Labor and Industries is wide open for a new commissioner. Amid close competition, Christina Stephenson emerges as the most qualified to take the nonpartisan seat.
Stephenson, 38, is a Portland civil rights attorney who runs her own law firm and represents workers seeking back wages or alleging unfair labor practices or discriminatory treatment. Her experience relates directly to much of the work she would be overseeing at BOLI, which enforces wage-and-hour, overtime and other employment laws. As Stephenson notes, she’s already familiar with these laws, both in helping workers understand their rights as well as in advising businesses about their responsibilities and how to comply.
Stephenson’s employment law expertise provides a valuable base for overseeing an agency with a growing backlog of uninvestigated complaints. If elected, she would adopt a “strategic enforcement” model for prioritizing the agency’s attention, in which the agency would decide what level of intervention, if any, is necessary depending on the complaint. The idea is to preserve limited resources to go after those employers or industries that are intentionally violating the law.
While Stephenson typically represents workers, she stressed the importance of education, adding that most business owners want to follow the rules. That means helping businesses access the specific information they...
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