DOL Budget Creates New Agency to Implement Blacklisting Executive Order

Employment Law, Inclusion and Diversity

The Department of Labor has requested $2.6 million and 15 employees in fiscal year 2016 to establish an Office of Labor Compliance to implement the President's Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces (a.k.a. "Blacklisting") Executive Order.  The purpose of the Office is to:

Facilitate cross-agency sharing of enforcement data and information to improve the targeting of enforcement and compliance assistance efforts.  These resources will improve the effectiveness of compliance efforts by leveraging the resources of all relevant agencies and government departments.

Recent conversations between the business community and administration officials have indicated DOL would request funding that could be used to require federal contractors to enter into "labor compliance agreements" with agency contracting officers, over and above any settlements reached under one of the 14 underlying federal employment laws or equivalent state laws.  According to Mark Wilson, HR Policy's VP for Health and Employment Policy and former DOL official, "the request gives the appropriations committees in Congress an opportunity to explore all of the issues surrounding this problematic EO."  Should Congress decide not to fund the new Office of Labor Compliance, the resources needed to implement the EO would have to be found by DOL in its existing funding.  Regarding other key DOL activities, OFCCP requested an additional $4.4 million and 10 employees to implement their final Equal Pay Report rule in 2016, and the Wage and Hour Division requested $31.7 million and 300 employees to strengthen enforcement.