The Labor Department’s top lawyer reiterated the agency’s plans to step back from enforcing wage-hour, child labor, and workplace safety laws in unionized workplaces.
The DOL continues to “disfavor pursuing enforcement in workplaces covered by collective bargaining agreements where they provide adequate and regularly implemented remedies,” Labor Solicitor Jonathan Berry said Thursday at New York University’s conference on labor and employment law.
Berry’s comments come after he directed the department’s regional attorneys earlier this year to stop prioritizing cases in unionized workplaces.
Unless there’s “credible evidence that the union is not fairly representing workers,” or if “remedies for violating a CBA are insufficient in that particular case,” the department should leave addressing these employment law violations to unions, Berry said.
“The basic idea here is that when workers have genuinely designated a union as their agent and the union is competent to assist them, the department should respect that choice and prioritize using its scarce enforcement resources elsewhere,” he said.
Berry also highlighted the DOL’s recently finalized rule tightening financial disclosure requirements for unions, which the AFL-CIO has challenged in court.
“I have the honor of defending that rule against legal challenge right now,” Berry said, adding that the case is moving to summary judgment proceedings this fall.
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