Workforce Management
September 3, 2009
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis reiterated that keeping workers safe on the job and ensuring that they receive all the pay that’s due to them are priorities, as she approaches her first Labor Day as head of the agency.
In a brief conference call with reporters Thursday, September 3, Solis said that by 2010, the department will have 1,275 new inspectors at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and 980 investigators in the Wage and Hour Division. That's an increase of more than 400 enforcement staff.
The enforcement emphasis is designed to give the department a new orientation after what the Obama administration portrays as eight years of lax oversight during President George W. Bush’s tenure.
The Obama budget request to Congress asks for $1.7 billion for worker protection programs, a 10 percent increase over the previous fiscal year. In the first six months of the year, the department has recovered more than $82 million in back wages for 107,000 minimum-wage workers.
Earlier in the week, Deputy Labor Secretary Seth Harris summed up the agency’s mission for a Washington audience.
“The department of good jobs for everyone,” he said.
Full Story: http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/26/65/30.php?src=wfw090908a
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