https://apnews.com/article/labor-department-deregulation-worker-safety-wages-223309692fecb3721ef377154e7689ed

The U.S. Department of Labor is aiming to rewrite or repeal more than 60 “obsolete” workplace regulations, ranging from minimum wage requirements for home health care workers and people with disabilities to standards governing exposure to harmful substances.

If approved, the wide-ranging changes unveiled this month also would affect working conditions at constructions sites and in mines, and limit the government’s ability to penalize employers if workers are injured or killed while engaging in inherently risky activities such as movie stunts or animal training.

The Labor Department says the goal is to reduce costly, burdensome rules imposed under previous administrations, and to deliver on President Donald Trump’s commitment to restore American prosperity through deregulation.

“The Department of Labor is proud to lead the way by eliminating unnecessary regulations that stifle growth and limit opportunity,” Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement, which boasted the “most ambitious proposal to slash red tape of any department across the federal government.”

Critics say the proposals would put workers at greater risk of harm, with women and members of minority groups bearing a disproportionate impact.

“People are at very great risk of dying on the job already,” Rebecca Reindel, the AFL-CIO union’s occupational safety and health director, said. “This is something that is only going to make the problem worse.”

The proposed changes have several stages to get through before they can take effect, including a public comment period for each one.

Here’s a look at some of the rollbacks under consideration:

No minimum wage for home health care workers

>>1421593 (OP)
Home health care workers help elderly or medically fragile people by preparing meals, administering medications, assisting with toilet use, accompanying clients to doctor appointments and performing other tasks. Under one of the Labor Department’s proposals, an estimated 3.7 million workers employed by home care agencies could be paid below the federal minimum wage — currently $7.25 per hour — and made ineligible for overtime pay if they aren’t covered by corresponding state laws.

The proposed rule would reverse changes made in 2013 under former President Barack Obama and revert to a regulatory framework from 1975. The Labor Department says that by lowering labor and compliance costs, its revisions might expand the home care market and help keep frail individuals in their homes for longer.

Judy Conti, director of government affairs at the National Employment Law Project, said her organization plans to work hard to defeat the proposal. Home health workers are subject to injuries from lifting clients, and “before those (2013) regulations, it was very common for home care workers to work 50, 60 and maybe even more hours a week, without getting any overtime pay,” Conti said.

Others endorse the proposal, including the Independent Women’s Forum, a conservative nonprofit based in Virginia. Women often bear the brunt of family caregiving responsibilities, so making home care more affordable would help women balance work and personal responsibilities, the group’s president, Carrie Lukas, said.

“We’re pleased to see the Trump administration moving forward on rolling back some of what we saw as counterproductive micromanaging of relationships that were making it hard for people to get the care they need,” Lukas said.

Samantha Sanders, director of government affairs and advocacy at the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute, said the repeal would not constitute a win for women.

>>1421595
“Saying we actually don’t think they need those protections would be pretty devastating to a workforce that performs really essential work and is very heavily dominated by women, and women of color in particular,” Sanders said.

Protections for migrant farm workers

Last year, the Labor Department finalized rules that provided protections to migrant farmworkers who held H-2A visas. The current administration says most of those rules placed unnecessary and costly requirements on employers.

Under the new proposal, the Labor Department would rescind a requirement for most employer-provided transportation to have seat belts for those agriculture workers.

The department is also proposing to reverse a 2024 rule that protected migrant farmworkers from retaliation for activities such as filing a complaint, testifying or participating in an investigation, hearing or proceeding.

“There’s a long history of retaliation against workers who speak up against abuses in farm work. And with H-2A it’s even worse because the employer can just not renew your visa,” said Lori Johnson, senior attorney at Farmworker Justice.

Michael Marsh, president and CEO of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, applauded the deregulation efforts, saying farmers were hit with thousands of pages of regulations pertaining to migrant farmworkers in recent years.

“Can you imagine a farmer and his or her spouse trying to navigate 3,000 new pages of regulation in 18 months and then be liable for every one of them?” he asked.

Adequate lighting for construction spaces

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, part of the Labor Department, wants to rescind a requirement for employers to provide adequate lighting at construction sites, saying the regulation doesn’t substantially reduce a significant risk.

>>1421597
OSHA said if employers fail to correct lighting deficiencies at construction worksites, the agency can issue citations under its “general duty clause.” The clause requires employers to provide a place of employment free from recognized hazards which are likely to cause death or serious physical harm.

Worker advocates think getting rid of a specific construction site requirement is a bad idea. “There have been many fatalities where workers fall through a hole in the floor, where there’s not adequate lighting,” Reindel said. “It’s a very obvious thing that employers should address, but unfortunately it’s one of those things where we need a standard, and it’s violated all the time.”

Mine safety

Several proposals could impact safety procedures for mines. For example, employers have to submit plans for ventilation and preventing roof collapses in coal mines for review by the Labor Department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration. Currently, MSHA district managers can require mine operators to take additional steps to improve those plans.

The Labor Department wants to end that authority, saying the current regulations give the district manager the ability to draft and create laws without soliciting comments or action by Congress.

Similarly, the department is proposing to strip district managers of their ability to require changes to mine health and safety training programs.

Limiting OSHA’s reach

The general duty clause allows OSHA to punish employers for unsafe working conditions when there’s no specific standard in place to cover a situation.

An OSHA proposal would exclude the agency from applying the clause to prohibit, restrict or penalize employers for “inherently risky professional activities that are intrinsic to professional, athletic, or entertainment occupations.”

>>1421600
A preliminary analysis identified athletes, actors, dancers, musicians, other entertainers and journalists as among the types of workers the limitation would apply to.

“It is simply not plausible to assert that Congress, when passing the Occupational Safety and Health Act, silently intended to authorize the Department of Labor to eliminate familiar sports and entertainment practices, such as punt returns in the NFL, speeding in NASCAR, or the whale show at SeaWorld,” the proposed rule reads.

Debbie Berkowitz, who served as OSHA chief of staff during the Obama administration, said she thinks limiting the agency’s enforcement authority would be a mistake.

“Once you start taking that threat away, you could return to where they’ll throw safety to the wind, because there are other production pressures they have,” Berkowitz said.

>>1421593 (OP)
Jesus christ what a grim story. People are going to die because of this. We can only hope a judge somewhere will deem these changes to be unconstitutional for denying workers the right to a safe workplace, among other things.

>>1421593 (OP)
This country has no future.

Ah, the love of money. What a way to go. I wonder if the CEOs huff the fumes of the deceased for superpowers. Do companies require human sacrifice? The more successful do. Look at any corporation.

>>1421643
>>1421627
>>1421616
Liberals crying the sky is falling over nothing

Quickly now, we have to all move to Canada and Mexico!

>>1421645
Good post

>>1421645
Saar!

>>1421655
God, I wish.

>>1421645
>Liberals crying the sky is falling over nothing
There's a good little brane washed conservative! keep trying and one day you too will be rich!

>>1421645
I've worked in confined spaces with shit lighting. People will die because of that rollback.

>>1421669
>brane

You will never be a white American, esl shill.

>>1421700
You should deport yourself back to Israel.

>>1421645
they're not liberals, they're leftists. but yeah i agree with you

>>1421593 (OP)
the economic benefits of this are gonna be completely overshadowed by those stupid tariffs, but it's still a win

>>1421645
>>1421659
>>1421700
>>1421735
>>1421736
Imagine being such a stupid Trump cult dick sucker that you actually root for deregulation of workplace safety to increase corporate profits. You think you getting some of this money? You think this will translate to a pay increase for you?

Literally rooting against your own interests and proud. Just like the conservatives cheering for fascism. You fucking useful idiots will give the rich everything and cheer as they slave labor you to death. Big brain boys.

Business doesn’t care about their workers. Which is why the government should not be run like a business. Because we are the workers of this country and we need the gov to care about us more then a business does.

>>1421737
Against my own interests? Sweaty, I dropship. I don't need workplace safety.

>>1421741
>Sweaty, I dropship
No you don't.

>>1421741
>regulations just a waste of money that could be converted into tax cuts for myself
>no, they don't apply to me at all. I just want other people to die so I can save 40 bucks.
We already know you're a sack of shit

>>1421737
This 1) reduces the current manufacturing paralysis on American industry due to over regulation and 2) opens up even more jobs for the able bodied working age Americans on public assistance who will now need to work (in addition to the construction jobs being freed up by his other policies)

>>1421593 (OP)
don't take the job then

>>1421779
you 1) are a faggot and 2) should stop posting forever

>>1421782
Uh-oh, melty alert

>>1421783
faggot

>>1421783
He's right you know. You are a huge faggot.

>>1421788
>>1421784
>TOTAL MELTDOWN
lel. Try some yoga or meditation or something

>>1421779
You think people want to work in a factory manufacturing wigits? There is a reason we send that work to other countries. Also your fantasy about freeloaders in the system is just that. A fantasy. The rich take up far more resources and contribute less to society than the poor. And the poor spend their money back into society. Rich hoard it out of societies.

Your entire premise of a country full of factory workers manufacturing bits and bobs is a silly fantasy of capitalism. Also, your point about construction jobs is also false. Tariffs have already wrecked future construction projects. The cost of metal and wood has skyrocketed in the past 6 months with no relief in sight.

You are vomiting conservative talking points that are not based on facts or reality.

>>1421793
They're not wrong though. Getting rid of regulations will kill and cripple millions of American workers, forcing them to commit suicide or drag their families into wage slavery.
Replacements for those workers can be found from the mentally ill, chronically sick, and disabled.
This will ensure American prosperity for no one, which is just what Republicunts want.

I can't wait to see the local burn victim set up at the front of Walmart, wheezing out greetings to everyone over the sound of their iron lung.

>>1421793
Wow *please* try not to meltdown here.
Not even sure how you can justify that deregulation of manufacturing is a fantasy when China has precisely zero regulations which has enabled them to have massive manufacturing production output.

1421795
>China has precisely zero regulations
You're being a lying faggot again
We've all seen the suicide nets

>>1421789
calling you a faggot is therapeutic to me, faggot

>>1421795
This motherfucker just say he wants us to be China?

>>1421823
this is the level of retardation we're dealing with in america due to media illiteracy and the defenestration of the overton window. brain drain is inevitable, get out while you can

>>1421793
>Also your fantasy about freeloaders in the system is just that. A fantasy.
You missed all the /lgbt/ threads on neet trannies having a melty over medicaid cuts

>>1421833
why don't you go back there forever, faggot

>>1421737
>You think you getting some of this money?

Keep seething, esl shill. You will never be white.

>>1421834
kwab

>>1421823
No, but you are free to interpret what I write however you'd like. I was simply pointing out that deregulation does remove barriers for manufacturing and it's not a "fantasy" as was claimed by Comrade Retard

>>1421836
i don't speak poltard

>>1421833
You spend a lot of time browsing /lbgt/ for someone who claims to hate trannies.
We all know you yearn to kiss their dicks

>>1421837
you even lie to yourself? how pathetic. we all saw your post praising china, you know

>>1421841
Uh huh. Any other "fantasies" you want debunked?

>>1421842
NTA, but can we debunk your fantasies of owning a gun and being an American?
Ooh, and your fantasy of finally deporting all brown people so they can't run a train on your mom

>>1421841
Look, I understand that you are angry now that you'll have to put down your fentanyl-smoking tin foil pipe and leave your tent behind Starbucks to go out and get a day job in a factory or working construction, but these new changes are positive for you and maybe one day you'll look back on all of this and realize it was good

>>1421842
just keep being a faggot so i can point and laugh

>>1421843
>>1421845
>melty alert
Oh my look at the time

>>1421844
i see i have triggered you. have i struck a nerve?

Looks like the shill ran out of arguments and now just sits back and claims that libs are having melties

Say goodbye to national parks because the rapist likes raping everything. Watch his private assets cause he just sold America to cash money.

>>1421844
You sound like a slave sheep talking about how awesome it is to be a slave sheep. Ugh, it's too hard to be free let's just go back to being slaves... sounds like a jew...

>>1421946
>>1421945
>>1421849
You really are on an unhinged rampage today. Did your wife's boyfriend stop buying you new dlc for your bing bing wahoos? Taking too many hormones?

What's wrong, pal?

>>1421948
You really have a lot of fantasies about lgbtq people and there day to day lives. You have described no less then 4 different weird scenarios for a gay couple. You keep talking about being on gay threads and researching what they talk about. Got a little obsession do ya? Thinking about dicks a lot lately? You keep bringing it up and describing elaborate fantasies you have when that has nothing to do with a conversation about deregulation and workplace safety that the rest of us are talking about.

>>1421837
>lets burn the planet down faster so we can make the shareholders just a tiny bit wealthier.

>>1421977
>You really have a lot of fantasies about lgbtq people and there day to day lives.

esl shill seethes about not being white or American.

>>1421645
You have never worked an honest day in your life.

As someone who is constantly on courtrooms I'm glad to see ""'''home healthcare workers"""" get fucked. Fuck them. 100% of the time it's some fake job title used by some lazy bum who lives at home with their parents not doing any actual home healthcare work.

The goal is to get the niggers back in the field. MAGA cheers not knowing that Trump considers them niggers.

>>1421948
You are a good little bitch. Trump might leave some sauce on your lip