After nearly three decades of complete non-enforcement? From today's Wall Street Journal:
AUGUST 19, 2009 Labor Department to Tighten Scrutiny
Wall Street Journal
By MELANIE TROTTMAN
WASHINGTON Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has spent her first few months in office focusing on handing out $46 billion in stimulus money. Now, her department is adding staff and signaling it will soon begin putting in practice the more assertive regulation of business she promised early in her tenure.
Ms. Solis has begun hiring 670 new investigators to enforce labor regulations.
There will be 150 investigators added in the Wage and Hour division to enforce wage rules and child-labor laws. Another 100 staff will be added to ensure contractors on stimulus projects are in compliance with applicable laws. The additions will boost the division's staff by more than one-third The Employee Benefits Security Administration, which helps to regulate private retirement, health and other benefit plans covering 150 million Americans, is adding 75 staffers to conduct nearly 600 more criminal and civil investigations.
Ms. Solis and President Barack Obama also have reversed or postponed some policy decisions made under former President George W. Bush. In April, the labor department postponed a last-minute Bush-era rule that would have required unions to disclose more about their finances. The agency will take more time to consider the rule, which businesses praised and unions said was excessive.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently formed a task force to design an enforcement program for severe violators. OSHA will conduct an intensive examination of an employer's inspection history and any systematic problems would trigger additional, mandatory inspections.
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