On August 28th, U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta announced the opening of the Office of Compliance Initiatives (OCI) - a cross-agency effort to complement the Department of Labor’s enforcement activities. This was in collaboration with federal employment agencies and the Department of Labor (DOL). In addition, several new ‘opinion’ letters that provide guidance to employers under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act were issued.
The object of the OCI is - amongst other matters - to provide both employers and employees with access to high quality and up-to-date information about their rights and obligations under federal labor laws and regulations; to assist enforcement agencies in developing new strategies to use data for more impactful compliance and enforcement strategies and to encourage a culture that promotes compliance assistance within the Department of Labor.
Two websites - worker.gov and employer.gov - were immediately instigated by the Office of Compliance Initiatives to provide information about worker’s rights and concerns in the workplace.
Worker.gov covers information about wages payment; rights to protected leave; retirement security and other benefits, together with information concerning rights protected by other agencies. It is focused on helping employees.
Employer.gov provides employers with information about their responsibilities and includes a section specifically intended for small business owners.
The Department of Labor, in a release stated:
“OCI will promote greater understanding of federal labor laws and regulations, allowing job creators to prevent violations and protect Americans’ wages, workplace safety and health, retirement security, and other rights and benefits. As part of its work, OCI will work with the enforcement agencies to refine their metrics to ensure the efficacy of DOL’s compliance assistance activities.”
The creation of the Office of Compliance Initiatives has been criticized by some who consider it reflects the Department of Labor’s growing emphasis on compliance rather than aggressive agency enforcement. However, Secretary of Labor, Alexander Acosta remarked during his announcement of the Office of Compliance Initiatives:
“……..vigorous enforcement and compliance assistance go hand in hand.”
In addition to providing information through the websites and other efforts, the Office of Compliance Initiatives plans to assist enforcement agencies in the development of new strategies - to use data for effective compliance and enforcement strategies.
