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During last year’s Presidential campaign, Obama made repeated promises to “step-up” enforcement efforts to help protect American workers. Just check out the scathing letter he sent last July to then Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, chastising the US Department of Labor (DOL) for what he perceived to be lax enforcement efforts:

It is important that the Department [of Labor] put procedures in place that will lead to improvements in the enforcement of workers’ rights. This is the core mission of the Department and failing to adequately enforce the Fair labor Standards Act (FLSA) is unacceptable. (July 25, 2008).

Now Obama is really delivering on his Campaign promises. And the proof is in the numbers.

Which brings me to the 2010 budget proposals put forward by a number of key federal agencies.

Let’s start with perhaps the hottest area right now - wage and hour law enforcement, which is overseen by the DOL. To quote the DOL’s budget request: “The FY 2010 budget includes a program increase of $30,862,000 to finance 288 [new full time staff members]. The additional staff will enable the program to conduct more targeted investigations, provide additional compliance assistance, and ensure that cases effectively maximize compliance on behalf of the greatest number of workers.” (http://www.dol.gov/dol/budget/2010/PDF/bib.pdf, page 36.)

Needless to say, with this significant increase in resources and funding, we can expect to see the tidal wave of wage and hour claims continue to swell.

Not to be outdone, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is also requesting a healthy budget increase for 2010. Specifically, the EEOC is requesting an increase of $23.378 million from its 2009 budget. With that money, the EEOC hopes to hire 224 new staff members, “[p]rovide funding to address a growing charge inventory and to implement the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair pay Act of 2009, and Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA) of 2008.” http://www.eeoc.gov/abouteeoc/plan/2010budget/index.html#IA.

Considering that we already saw double digit growth in EEO claims in 2008 (15.2% according to the EEOC’s FY08 statistics), and considering that the unemployment rate is the single largest predictor of the pace of discrimination litigation, beefed up enforcement efforts by the EEOC will likely drive astronomical claim numbers in 2009 and beyond.

With the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) pending in Congress, another agency to keep an eye on this year is the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Like the DOL and the EEOC, the NLRB also is seeking substantially increased funding. The NLRB has requested an additional $20.8 million over its 2009 budget to, among other things, increase its enforcement staff. http://www.nlrb.gov/nlrb/shared_files/reports/NLRB_JUST_2010/JUST2010SectionXI.pdf.

My prediction is that EFCA will pass in late 2009 or early 2010, and US employers will be quickly hurtled into a new era of unprecedented unionization efforts. Do front line managers understand the basics of union organizing or labor law compliance? The short answer is no, considering that the private sector is currently only about 7% unionized. Will employers be facing much greater risk exposure in terms of new violating labor laws? The short answer is yes, and increased funding for the NLRB means even stricter and more thorough enforcement.

Simply put, all of these pending budget increases mean that tougher government enforcement of US employment laws is inevitable. Employers should take proactive measures now to help prevent issues arising in their workplaces.

And as you can probably guess, my recommended prescription involves a healthy dose of training:

• For supervisors and employees, education on compliance with state and federal wage and hour laws.
• For supervisors and employees, education on how to comply with key EEO laws, including those covering workplace harassment across all of the protected categories.
• For supervisors, education on basic union awareness topics as well as the good management practices that tend to make union representation unnecessary.

ELT can help you prepare your workforce, with online training solutions covering the gamut of your key risk areas (harassment, discrimination, wage and hour, union awareness, good management practices) as well as other timely topics; check out our solutions at http://www.elt-inc.com/our-solutions/course-topics.

We may be in the depth of a recession, but these federal agencies are going to spend more money, and hire more employees. I guess with even with the most severe economic contraction, there is always some kind of concurrent expansion. And when it comes to the world of workplace compliance, that expansion means dramatically increased risk exposure for your organization.