Punching In: Labor Department is Leaning into AI Partnerships

Monday morning musings for workplace watchers.

DOL’s AI Sales Pitch | More States Take on Workplace Safety

Parker Purifoy: The Department of Labor is partnering with a private software company to deliver AI education to the public, focusing on making it accessible.

Taylor Stockton, chief innovation officer at the DOL, detailed the department’s “Make America AI-Ready” initiative at the American AI Fest March 26 in Washington, DC. It was his latest stop in a round of appearances to boost the profile of the DOL’s push to bring AI education to more workers. He also spoke at the AI conference in Las Vegas earlier in March.

“We are at an inflection point, and this is an inflection point that the Department of Labor is thinking about very intentionally,” Stockton said. “This could very easily be a check-box exercise, a symbolic press release, but our hearts are in this.”

Stockton joined the DOL last year after working at private equity firms and AI tech companies focused around workforce development, including FutureFit AI and Pathway Ventures.

The DOL launched a free educational course, created in partnership with AI software developer Arist, that is delivered in 10-minute segments through a user’s cell phone over the course of seven days in what Stockton called “bite-sized chunks” of knowledge about how to direct AI, evaluate its output, and use it responsibly.

The DOL has also released an AI literacy framework to guide employers, educators, and state agencies on how to use the technology and avoid its potential pitfalls. That framework is incorporated into the department’s own learning tools, Stockton said.

The DOL framework doesn’t set any new rules or regulations on AI. It comes as part of a larger campaign by President Donald Trump and his administration to boost AI use in the US.

The White House’s AI Action Plan, released last July, emphasized worker training and upskilling but is silent on worker protections which is a departure from the Biden administration’s approach to the issue.

Michael Ioffe, CEO at Arist, said during the conference that the DOL’s learning platform has been “15 times more engaging” than traditional AI learning experiences.

“No one has put reach at the center of programs like this and no one has taken the time to deeply think about the life of an American worker and how we can meet them where they are,” he said.

The US Department of Labor headquarters in Washington, DC.

Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Tre’Vaughn Howard: Two states recently passed workplace safety bills, adding to the complex web of heat and violence hazard rules employers must now follow.

Virginia passed bills that require its Safety and Health Codes Board to develop and adopt regulations designed to protect workers from heat illness, while Utah took a significant step by establishing a law aimed at reducing violence against health care workers.

Multi-state employers must now navigate the varying state standards for addressing these hazards, according to Courtney M. Malveaux, a partner at McGuireWoods and former Virginia labor commissioner.

“One of the big concerns that’s at play here is having predictability in the rules of the road with respect to heat illness and workplace violence,” said Malveaux.

Hospitals in Utah will now need to implement a comprehensive reporting system to track workplace violence incidents. Virginia decided to delay issuing its workplace violence bill to allow lawmakers more time to sort out the weeds of the legislation.

While the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration has made efforts over the years to promulgate federal rules for both heat and workplace violence hazards, the slow-moving process continues to prompt more states to step in.

The bills mark a trend by states taking a lead to protect workers—New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Illinois are also considering new heat illness standards.

However, the patchwork of heat rules coming out aren’t effective at keeping workers safe, according to Jason Glaser, CEO of La Isla Network, an organization focused on ending heat-related illnesses among workers worldwide.

“All the current guidance and proposed regulation is all over and under protective all at once,” said Glaser. “It’s not just how hot it is—it’s what you’re doing in that heat.”

Glaser notes any final rule by OSHA needs to hone in on three key areas: looking at the environmental temperature for a specific location, an individual’s actual workload, and the protective gear worn during that individual’s work.

The Biden administration began working on a heat hazard standard in 2021, and has received more than 47,000 comments to date.

The Biden-era heat proposal would require employers to provide workers with water and shaded rest areas once temperatures reach 80 degrees, and mandatory 15-minute rest breaks at least every two hours. It also would mandate increased monitoring once it reaches 90 degrees.

OSHA has signaled under President Donald Trump that it intends to overhaul that plan.

But the agency will need to balance demands from employers, a regulation-averse White House, and the legal principal known as the logical outgrowth doctrine, which requires the final rule to remain a foreseeable extension of the original proposal.