How Washington’s labor and employment news could impact businesses

The Bypass buzz is a weekly update summarizing job news from across the Beltway and explaining how events in Washington, D.C. could impact your business.

OSHA bypass registration is required. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations go into effect today, May 31, 2024. A controversial rule that allows third parties to access an employer’s private property while accompanied by an OSHA officer during a workplace safety inspection is the subject of both a legal challenge and a resolution regarding the Congressional Review Act.

Senate Republican: Administration’s labor policy puts politics before people. This week, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) released a report titled “How Biden’s Jobs Agenda Puts Politics Over People: Arming the Federal Government to Benefit Political Supporters at the Expense of American Workers.” The report criticized many of the administration’s policy recommendations that should be familiar to readers Buzz. It argues that U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) regulations for independent contractors deprive workers of opportunity and flexibility, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rules for joint employers undermine the franchising business model, and overtime regulations “will destroy jobs and make it’s harder for nonprofits to provide services.” Moreover, according to the report, the administration distributes leaflets to trade unions; the report cites the Board’s August 2023 decision, OSHA’s workaround regulations, as well as the project’s administrative employment agreement and Davis-Bacon Act provisions. If a new administration takes the White House in 2025, the report could serve as a potential roadmap for changing labor policy.

The Republican bill addresses the employment status of college athletes. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced the Student-Athlete Economic Freedom Protection Act, which clarifies that “a student-athlete shall not be considered an employee of an institution, conference, or association.” The debate over whether graduate students and student-athletes should be classified as “employees” has been raging at the NLRB for years. Most recently, in February 2024, the Board’s Boston regional office ruled that Dartmouth men’s basketball players are “employees” under the National Labor Relations Act.

House Republicans oppose the White House pension initiative. The Buzz recently discussed a White House event in which five major pension plans agreed to “encourage their portfolio companies to remain neutral when employees seek to exercise their freedom to unionize; and, where appropriate, enter into neutrality agreements with trade union organizations that include voluntary recognition or charter recognition, reasonable deadlines for concluding the first agreement, and a commitment not to interfere with trade union organizing. Well, Republican leaders on the House Education and Workforce Committee aren’t too happy with the situation and are investigating whether the funds violate federal pension law. Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), the committee chair, and Bob Good (R-VA) recently sent a letter to Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su requesting “documents and information regarding the Department of Labor’s (DOL) involvement in efforts to use pension funds to supporting trade union interests.” The letter argued that “the diversion of pension fund assets to promote collective bargaining is contrary to statutory protections for pension funds under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).”

Foxx wants EU transparency. The Buzz described recent actions by Republicans on Capitol Hill to ensure greater accountability and transparency from labor unions. In keeping with this theme, Representative Foxx introduced the “Union Members’ Right to Know Act” (H.R. 8573) this week. The bill would amend the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 to require unions to notify members of their right not to be members and to refrain from funding union activities unrelated to collective bargaining, contract administration, and grievance resolution. Unions would also be required to notify members of their right to seek “reasonable accommodations, based on an individual’s religious beliefs or practices, not to pay dues or fees to the union organization.” Over the years, various versions of this concept have appeared in legislative form, but of course they have never been implemented.

Immigration Act 1924 One hundred years ago this week, the Immigration Act of 1924 went into effect. By banning all immigration from Asia and establishing restrictive quotas for immigrants from the rest of the world, the xenophobic law represents a dark chapter in the history of American immigration policy. Fueling fears that immigrants would negatively impact American identity and undermine jobs by providing cheaper labor, the legislation was supported by both the Ku Klux Klan and the American Federation of Labor. According to the Department of State’s Office of the Historian, “the most fundamental purpose of the 1924 Immigration Act was to preserve the ideal of United States homogeneity.” Although the Act was subsequently amended by the Immigration and Nationality Act 1952 and replaced by the Immigration and Nationality Act 1965, some of its features remained. For example, the act established the U.S. Border Patrol (originally part of the DOL) as well as the requirement that prospective immigrants first obtain a visa at a U.S. consulate abroad before traveling to the United States.