FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 02, 2025
October 02, 2025
NCFLL Contact: Brent Barron, [email protected]
AFGE Contact: Tim Kauffman, [email protected]
Department of Labor’s Shutdown and RIF Threats Cripple and Harm American Workers, Union Says
Categories:
DOL
AFGE National Council of Field Labor Locals condemns shutdown that has furloughed bulk of agency’s workforce
WASHINGTON – The American Federation of Government Employees’ National Council of Field Labor Locals (NCFLL) condemns the federal government shutdown and the administration’s threatened reduction in force (RIF). These actions hinder the Department of Labor’s ability to meet its mission, abuse thousands of dedicated public servants, and leave millions of American workers without critical protections.
According to the Department of Labor’s official contingency plan, more than 9,700 of the agency’s 12,916 employees are furloughed. Only 3,141 are on duty, with most limited to emergency functions. The vast majority of the department’s enforcement, oversight, and support work is suspended.
“Over three-quarters of the department’s workforce has been furloughed,” NCFLL President Brent Barron said. “No wage theft investigations, no safety inspections, no checks on retirement plans, and no protections for working families. This shutdown is an attack on American workers and hurts everybody.”
The impact is devastating:
- Wage and Hour Division (WHD): Out of 1,270 employees, only 17 remain. Workers owed back pay are left without enforcement.
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): 1,485 of 1,664 employees are furloughed, leaving only 179 on duty to monitor workplace safety nationwide.
- Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA): 916 of 1,590 employees are furloughed, weakening oversight of one of the nation’s most hazardous industries.
- Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA): Only 46 of 668 employees remain to oversee retirement and health plans serving millions of Americans.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS): More than 2,000 employees furloughed, delaying vital economic data used by businesses and policymakers.
- Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS): Only 3 of 193 employees remain, no enforcement of veterans’ job rights under USERRA. Veterans will lose critical workplace protections.
- Employment and Training Administration (ETA): 950 of 981 employees furloughed, leaving only 31 working. No oversight of unemployment insurance systems that serve over two million Americans filing claims each month. No monitoring of state job training and apprenticeship programs that serve more than six million workers each year. No distribution or oversight of workforce development grants. No technical assistance to states managing unemployment trust funds.
- Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP): 1,182 of 1,340 employees remain on the job, processing injury and illness claims for injured federal workers and their families. They are working in “excepted” status without knowing when they will be paid. This places financial and emotional strain on the very staff ensuring injured workers receive the benefits they rely on to get back to work.
- Office of Administrative Law Judges (OALJ): All employees furloughed, halting hearings for workers appealing wage or safety violations. Justice delayed is justice denied.
- Office of the Solicitor (SOL): 563 of 630 employees furloughed, stopping legal enforcement of labor protections. Employers violating the law face no accountability.
- Women’s Bureau: Fully furloughed, halting policy support and advocacy for working women.
“These numbers show the horror,” Barron said. “American workers are left unprotected while the public servants who enforce our labor laws are prohibited from working. On top of this, the administration is threatening permanent job cuts through a reduction in force. These actions are a betrayal to American federal workers and the public they serve.”
Congress needs to come to an agreement. Full operations across the Department of Labor and all federal agencies need to be restored, and any plan to eliminate federal jobs through a RIF in the federal government must be abandoned.
“The Department of Labor should be the model employer for the nation,” Barron added. “But right now, the government is abandoning its own workforce and turning its back on American workers.”
As the department implemented the shutdown on Oct. 1, the Office of Management and Budget provided templates for employees to include political messaging blaming Democrats for the shutdown in their out-of-office notice. Federal employees are non-partisan, as required by law, and should never be directed to participate in partisan messaging, especially when those messages may contribute to continued political division or compromise their neutrality as civil servants.
“Federal workers are not political and should not be used as pawns in a political game. This must end now,” said Barron.
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