{"id":5202,"date":"2025-05-04T23:09:45","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T06:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abovecloud.xyz\/?p=5202"},"modified":"2025-05-05T23:10:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T06:10:08","slug":"mass-resignations-at-labor-department-threaten-workers-in-us-and-overseas-warn-staff-as-more-cuts-loom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abovecloud.xyz\/?p=5202","title":{"rendered":"Mass resignations at labor department threaten workers in US and overseas, warn staff \u2013 as more cuts loom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Exclusive: Insiders sound alarm over \u2018catastrophic\u2019 impact of widespread departures and cuts under Trump
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A \u201ccatastrophic\u201d exodus of thousands of employees from the US Department of Labor threatens \u201call of the core aspects of working life\u201d, insiders have warned, amid fears that the\u00a0Trump administration<\/a>\u00a0will further slash the agency\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The federal agency has already lost about 20% of its workforce, according to employees, as nearly 2,700 staff took retirement, early retirement, deferred resignation buyouts or \u201cfork in the road<\/a>\u201d departures earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remaining workers fear further cuts are on the way, as the threat of a mass \u201creduction in force\u201d firing looms large after a February\u00a0order<\/a>\u00a0from the White House for agencies to draw up \u201creorganization\u201d plans.

\u201cThe department has gotten 20% smaller, before any formal reductions in force are announced. A lot of people headed for the exits because so many different components of the Department of Labor have been threatened by reduction in forces [Rifs],\u201d said an employee at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), a key government data agency, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. \u201cGod only knows how much smaller it will be when the Rifs are announced.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesperson for the labor department said they could not confirm the number of employees who have taken retirement or resignation offers, or are now on administrative leave. They did not provide further comment on the impact on operations.

Last month Jihun Han, chief of staff to the US secretary of labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, sent a staff-wide email<\/a> warning they could face criminal charges for speaking to journalists about agency business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of the core aspects of working life can no longer be assumed, because the Department of Labor was chronically underfunded for a long time, and eliminating half the staff, or whatever their goals are, will cause it to be absolutely dysfunctional,\u201d the BLS employee said. \u201cI think it\u2019s catastrophic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cuts will have ripple effects for workers throughout the US economy, such as for wage and hour enforcement and safety protections, and state and local governments that rely on funds from the labor department, they cautioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An attorney at the labor department, who also requested to remain anonymous, said attrition had forced attorneys to take on more administrative tasks, such as picking up mail and taking on workloads that detract from their job duties. Office cleaning and maintenance had also decreased, they claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve cynically exempted a lot of frontline positions, such as wage and hour investigators or safety inspectors, but of course those people will have to do a ton more work. If you cut one place, it doesn\u2019t work as well as it did before as all of the support those people had is no longer there,\u201d the attorney said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing a lot more work, work that there is no reason attorneys should be doing. What it means is workers are going to get fewer services.\u201d

International labor grants totaling $577m<\/a> were cut at the labor department in March, eliminating work and research being done over several years and cancelling about $237m in funds yet to be disbursed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An employee at the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) said about half the bureau\u2019s staff had taken buyout offers in the wake of the grant cuts and threats of terminations. In addition to grants, the agency also ensures basic labor rights are upheld in free trade agreements and conducts research, including congressionally mandated reports on forced and child labor in other countries.

\u201cThe bottom line is it\u2019s worse for workers overseas. It will harm workers in the US because it will make it easier for foreign companies to unfairly compete with businesses in the US, by making it easier and cheaper to outsource to other countries,\u201d the ILAB employee said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s worse for American consumers and US businesses that would rather not have products made by child slaves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, cuts to grants, contracts, office leases at the labor department\u00a0enacted<\/a>\u00a0by the so-called \u201cdepartment of government efficiency\u201d (Doge) \u2013 led by the billionaire tycoon Elon Musk \u2013 total $455m, including $23m from shutting down offices, and $192m for other contracts and services.

Despite the small fraction of federal spending allocated to the labor department, Doge has listed<\/a> the department as fourth for the highest claimed savings among all departments in the federal government. Funding for the labor department had already significantly decreased in recent decades, from $119bn<\/a> in 1980 when adjusted for inflation to $54.3bn last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Workers inside the department say attrition and cuts have undermined or hampered operations, increasing workloads on those still there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s become a hostile environment for folks,\u201d said an employee working in a civil rights division. Trump issued<\/a> an executive order in January characterizing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts as discriminatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere have been leads and supervisors who have left, so there\u2019s nobody to do that work, except for those of us who are still there,\u201d they added. \u201cGenerally, I would say civil rights enforcement is going to be extremely delayed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A worker who recently left the women\u2019s bureau at the labor department said staff leaving, coupled with grant cuts and lack of direction and leadership, had severely diminished the work of the bureau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis administration is showing they don\u2019t care about the over 70 million working women in the US,\u201d they claimed. \u201cWithout the work of the women\u2019s bureau, we\u2019ll lose valuable data and research about how women are faring in the workforce, as well as initiatives that help women enter and succeed in good-paying jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project 2025, the rightwing blueprint drawn up ahead of Trump\u2019s re-election, called for<\/a> sweeping changes at the labor department, including the ability to make it easier to decertify unions, offer states waivers for exemptions from federal labor laws, maximize hiring of political appointees, freeze recruitment of career personnel and significantly reduce the department\u2019s budget. The Heritage Foundation, which organized Project 2025, has in the past called<\/a> for the department to be shut down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe anticipated drastic cuts to the [labor department] are anti-worker,\u201d Julie Su, secretary of labor under Biden, wrote in a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0last month. \u201cThey are part of the administration\u2019s war on workers that includes obliterating union protections, stripping workers of collective bargaining rights, and attacks on federal employees and the workers who depend on them.\u201d

Reprinted from The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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