Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su strongly pushed workers’ rights enforcement to a Republican-controlled House committee that at times challenged her plan.

Her testimony before the House Education and the Workforce Committee on June 7 was intended to be a discussion of the Department of Labor budget for fiscal 2024, which begins Oct. 1, but it also gave insight into how Su will lead the Labor Department.
 
Su’s testimony was in line with the other pro-worker policies and spending priorities pushed by the Biden administration. She explained that the DOL wants to make sure employers, “who play by the rules don’t get undercut by those who don’t.” Biden selected Su to succeed former Laborers member and Mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh, who stepped down in March to become the Executive Director of the National Hockey League Players’ Association.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee advanced Su’s appointment on a party-line vote after a nomination hearing in April, but her full Senate confirmation will not be as easy. A few Democrat Senators and two independents who often vote with Democrats remain undecided. Business groups are running ads pressuring the undecided senators to reject Su’s nomination, while the AFL-CIO and numerous labor unions are countering with a pro-Su campaign.

The opposition is focusing on Su’s pro-worker record going all the way back to her time as a civil liberties lawyer in California, where she gained notoriety exposing garment worker sweatshops in Los Angeles.

During the June House committee hearing, Su emphasized the DOL’s plans to go after labor lawbreakers, which includes seeking more money and enforcement officers. Overall, President Biden wants to add $430 million for worker protection, raising the total to $2.3 billion in the new fiscal year.

“We plan to deliver on our promise to build an inclusive economy – from the bottom up and the middle out, just like President Biden says,” Su testified. “Where workers are valued and protected, and where they share in the prosperity made possible through their labor.”
 
Su also touched on the importance of job training, but stressed the DOL intends to enforce wage and hour, job safety and civil rights compliance laws.
 
In the president’s proposed budget, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is slated to receive the biggest jump in both hiring (432 more workers) and money, $106 million, or about a 16 percent increase. The Mine Safety and Health Administration would receive $50 million more, which could add 141 more mine inspectors.

OSHA’s staff is at its lowest level since the agency was created more than 50 years ago, according to the AFL-CIO.

More staff would let OSHA, “become both more proactive and responsive in itsefforts to improve workplace safety and health,” Su said.

The Wage and Hour Division, which enforces minimum wage and overtime pay laws, would get an $81 million increase to hire 389 more full-time workers. The new staff would focus on monitoring child labor issues, she said.

Multiple states have or are considering legislation to amend laws designed to protect children from working long hours or in dangerous jobs.
 
“Our country’s economy should not rely on the exploitation of children for cheaper labor,” Su said. “Young children should be in school during the day and home asleep at night.

“They should not be working in slaughterhouses at (2 a.m.), and 10-year-olds should never be operating a deep fryer at a restaurant. We simply cannot accept that some companies are profiting from the work of children or the theft of vulnerable people’s wages.”

The proposed DOL budget also seeks an additional $40 million for the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, which monitors federal contractors to ensure they obey labor laws, particularly civil rights laws.
 
The government awards hundreds of billions of dollars of contracts every fiscal year. Su said OFCCP would concentrate its efforts on compliance assistance and oversight of the construction industry, where contractors and workers are responsible for billions of dollars in infrastructure projects.

OFCCP will use the new money to, “remove barriers to hiring and promote access to good jobs” for underrepresented groups, including women and workers of color, Su said.

The proposed budget also proposes spending $60 million more to hire 203 additional workers for DOL’s solicitor’s office, the department that goes after labor lawbreakers, including OSHA violators, firms that short workers on overtime pay and companies that discriminate.
 
Anti-union House Committee Chair, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., led the Republican opposition, but targeted the DOL spending plan more than Su. She claimed the Wage and Hour Division is inefficient and slammed the department for trying to protect workers against the coronavirus.

Foxx went on to dismiss the Protect the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), alleging Su and the DOL are trying to use regulations to implement it.

“This culture of union favoritism undermines workers’ rights,” Foxx alleged, without providing any proof.
 
“Washington should not be in the business of picking winners and losers in our economy (by) attempting to overturn every right-to-work law in the country, eliminating independent contracting, jeopardizing franchise businesses or rewarding union bosses with unchecked power by acquiescing to every item on their wish list.”