FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 12, 2025
May 12, 2025
Contact:
Tim Kauffman
202-639-6405/202-374-6491
[email protected]
Union Decries Administration Move to Fire Labor Department Workers
Categories:
Labor
Agency action will gut division that protects contractor workers from discrimination
WASHINGTON – The union representing federal employees with the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs is decrying the agency’s decision to fire most of the agency’s remaining employees effective June 6.
The agency had 485 employees on board as of September 2024 but will be left with about 50 staff between the national office in Washington and the lone remaining field office in Dallas due to employees either taking the administration’s deferred resignation program or being removed through a reduction-in-force. Employees received RIF notices on May 6, giving them just 30 days’ notice of their removal.
“It’s frustrating,” said Daryl Laurie, president of the American Federation of Government Employees’ National Council of Field Labor Locals. “The department did not provide the proper 120-day notice of the RIF to the union as is required by our collective bargaining agreement and it got an unnecessary waiver from OPM so that it only had to provide a 30-day RIF notice to the employees rather than the required 60-day notice. DOL could have been transparent with its OFCCP employees about what it was doing and allowed them to make an informed decision about their future.”
The OFCCP was established by executive order in 1965 to protect American workers from race and gender discrimination by federal contractors. However, President Trump revoked that executive order on Jan. 21. While employees were still able to investigate discrimination by federal contractors based on disability (under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973) and veteran’s status (under the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974), management at DOL chose to put that work in abeyance while employees waited for the other shoe to drop.
In her March 24 introductory email to the staff, newly appointed OFCCP Director Catherine Eschbach warned that there would be a reduction-in-force. Ignoring the department’s contractual obligations and inquiries from the union, employees were kept in the dark about specifics of the RIF plans.
On April 14, OFCCP employees had one final opportunity to opt into a deferred resignation program that would guarantee them pay until the end of the fiscal year. Faced with uncertainty and getting no answers from DOL, many chose to leave under the administration’s deferred resignation program – particularly newer hires and more senior staff. Many mid-career employees, especially those with young families, had little choice but to stick it out in the hopes that a RIF would not be necessary. These hopes were dashed two days later on April 16, when OFCCP placed most remaining employees who did not accept the deferred resignation on administrative leave.
“As the federal agency that oversees the treatment of American workers, DOL could have done better for its own employees and the American public,” Laurie said.
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