The Labor Department under Trump is moving ahead with a plan to rewrite or wipe out more than 60 regulations it calls “obsolete,” a shake-up that might touch everything from pay rules for home care aides to site safety rules for construction jobs and mines, an Associated Press report said on Tuesday. The department's stated aim is to cut through layers of red tape and spur economic growth, the report noted. More than 60 rules now on the table for repeal Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, discussing the initiative, said it is “the boldest drive to cut red tape of any federal agency,” the AP report indicated. Home care aides may face pay cut The report highlighted one of the boldest moves: the plan to rewrite a 2013 rule that expanded federal minimum wage and overtime rights to about 3.7 million home care aides. If the agency proceeds, these workers could legally be paid less than the $7.25 an hour floor now in place.Judy Conti, the National Employment Law Project’s Director of Government Affairs, decisively rejected the idea, declaring that “Before the 2013 regulations, home care workers routinely put in 50, 60, even more hours a week without a nickel of overtime.” Conti’s organization has spent years tracking abuse in the industry and is worried that any repeal of overtime protections would invite a return to that obviously exploitative schedule. A small group of business interests, however, argues that without the strain of extra wages, more families will be able to afford extra care hours—and that will help working women juggle jobs and caregiving without falling behind. Migrant Farmworkers Face Fewer Protections Under the new proposal, the department means to lift long-standing protections for workers coming to the United States on H-2A visas. The most contentious rollback would strike the requirement that growers supply seat belts to transport workers in trucks. Another would erase guarantees that workers who file a complaint, join an investigation, or even help interview other workers will not be punished for doing so. Retaliation, Lori Johnson, Senior Attorney at Farmworker Justice, explained to the wire service, is no idle threat in this industry. “The fear of being sent home or losing one's job is daily reality for laborers.” On the other hand, Michael Marsh, President of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, welcomed the deregulation, saying it will reduce the paperwork that growers face in the migrant labor program.Construction and Mine Safety A recent OSHA report indicates the agency intends to scrap the requirement for adequate site lighting in construction, arguing it fails to measurably lower accident rates. Safety groups counter that the absence of light remains fatal. “Too often we’ve seen workers disappear through a floor opening that the beam of a light would have caught,” AFL-CIO safety director Rebecca Reindel told the AP. In mining, the department seeks to strip district managers of the power to demand extra protective measures beyond what a company’s existing safety plan lists. Critics warn that, in volatile settings like underground coal seams, that discretion is the last line between routine safety and collapse. Limiting OSHA’s Reach for Risky Professions OSHA is also moving to rescind enforcement of safety standards in jobs widely acknowledged to be hazardous by nature, including professional sports and the live shows that drive SeaWorld’s bottom line. While the department acknowledges a kicker’s full-speed punt and a whale’s high arc of a trainer’s dive are dangerous, it maintains that the footprint of a workplace rule cannot stretch that wide without becoming absurd.Debbie Berkowitz, who once served as OSHA’s Chief of Staff, cautioned that narrowing the agency’s powers could lead to significant harm. “If you ease that leverage, you invite a culture where safety gets ignored again,” she told the AP. The draft revisions must clear multiple steps—most crucially a chance for the public to weigh in—before becoming law.
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