DOL Sends Mass Layoff Notices to Contractor Bias Watchdog Staff

Most of the remaining employees of the Department of Labor’s federal contractor watchdog received layoff notices this week as the Trump administration completes a key step in its plan to drastically downsize the office.

Impacted workers at the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs got a 30-day warning this week ahead of their terminations, slated for June 6, according to a copy of the notice reviewed by Bloomberg Law.

A Jan. 21 executive order from President Donald Trump gutted most of the office’s power to police for discrimination and ensure affirmative action plans are in place at companies that do business with the government. The majority of the OFCCP’s staff nationwide was put on administrative leave in April ahead of projected terminations.

The mass layoffs will affect more than 300 people still employed by the agency across five regional offices and the OFCCP’s division of enforcement, according to a May. 6 email from the DOL’s human resources office to a federal workers’ union, viewed by Bloomberg Law.

Following Trump’s January rescission of the decades-old executive order that established most of the OFCCP’s power, “approximately 90% of OFCCP’s previous workload is no longer applicable, rendering the vast majority of functions within the agency unnecessary,” the email said.

The agency plans to maintain a presence in only one regional area, with a headquarters for the region in Dallas, according to the email.

Like many federal employees, OFCCP staff had the opportunity to use the government’s voluntary early retirement authority and the voluntarily separation incentive program to plan an exit before mass terminations.

The only remaining duties of the OFCCP are the ability to enforce certain antibias laws for disabled workers and veterans, though its new director, Catherine Eschbach, has said she would review those authorities as well.

DOL also received a waiver from the Office of Personnel Management to give laid off workers 30-day notice of their termination rather than the typical 60-day minimum, according to an April 16 letter from the OPM to the DOL reviewed by Bloomberg Law.

The DOL requested the waiver based on Trump’s order that “eliminated” the “regulatory foundation for OFCCP’s core mission”, the letter said.

“What was disingenuous is the department never shared with anybody their plans for reduction of the agency,” said Brent Barron, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 648 and a vice president of the National Council of Field Labor Locals.

“Employees for the Department of Labor that are out there supposed to be protecting the American workforce were kicked to the curb like they were trash,” Barron added.

A spokesperson for DOL did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the layoff notices Wednesday.