Punching In: Leaks and Broken Bathrooms at DOL’s Headquarters

Monday morning musings for workplace watchers

Frances Perkins Maintenance Issues | Pilots Fight Vaccine Rules

Rebecca Rainey: The Department of Labor’s headquarters in Washington DC has continual water leaks, broken bathrooms, and out of order doors going unfixed for months, agency employees say as they spend more time there due to President Donald Trump’s in-office mandate for federal workers.

Bathrooms and water fountains within the Frances Perkins Building are “spotty,” two current DOL employees who asked to remain anonymous say, with some remaining closed for weeks or months at a time. One of the main revolving door entrances to the building has been shuttered for several months, in addition to an X-ray machine near one of the staff entrances. Malfunctioning air conditioning throughout the building led to staff being permitted to work from home for a few days at the end of June.

While issues at the DOL’s headquarters, which was built more than 50 years ago, aren’t unique to this administration—one staffer said there was a snake spotted in the building last year and an inspection found significant mice problems in 2019—one DOL employee said requests for maintenance are often stalled.

Leaking ceiling panels at the US Department of Labor headquarters in Washington, DC.

Bloomberg Law

In response to a request to repair bathrooms in one section of the building, agency officials informed staff that there wasn’t enough money left in the fiscal year budget to immediately address the issue, according to one current staffer.

The frustrations over the building’s condition grew after the Trump administration purchased two large banners of Trump and Theodore Roosevelt to display along the side of the building for Labor Day.

But, DOL leadership says that they are responding to maintenance concerns within the building.

“The Department of Labor’s Administration and Management team is working diligently to improve the overall maintenance of the historic Frances Perkins Building, including significant improvements to the plumbing, air conditioning, and lighting—work that was neglected under the previous administration,” said DOL spokesperson Courtney Parella.

The DOL HQ also hasn’t experienced any air conditioning issues since the event earlier this summer, according to the agency. And as a result of recent plumbing work, all 91 restrooms across the building are currently open and fully operational.

Robert Iafolla: A group of pilots fired from United Airlines for refusing to take the Covid-19 vaccine will try to convince a federal appeals court to revive their lawsuit against a pilots union for allegedly violating its duty to oppose the company’s strict vaccination requirement.

Lawyers for the ex-United pilots and the Air Line Pilots Association are set to argue the case at the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Tuesday. The court has permitted the attorneys to participate over Zoom.

The case is the second of three separate lawsuits related to United’s vaccination mandate to reach oral argument in federal appeals courts in as many weeks.

United imposed a requirement in August 2021 calling for 67,000 US-based workers to get inoculated against Covid. While United said 97% of its US workers got vaccinated by September of that year, the mandate’s full implementation was delayed by a court order, which allegedly cost the company millions of dollars. The airline allowed 2,200 unvaccinated workers to return to their jobs in March 2022.

Last week, the Fifth Circuit heard oral argument in United’s challenge to an order from a Trump-appointed district judge in Texas that certified a class of workers for being put on unpaid leave as an accommodation to their religious objections to getting the shot.

The question of whether religious sincerity can be litigated on a class-wide basis seemed to divide the three-judge panel. Two Trump appointees appeared open to allowing it, while an Obama appointee voiced his skepticism.

Next week, the Seventh Circuit will host arguments over two United pilots’ attempt to revive their religious discrimination lawsuit against the airlines. Judge Matthew Kennelly, a Clinton appointee to the Northern District of Illinois, threw out the pilots’ lawsuit, deeming it futile, and denied their request to amend it.

The Seventh Circuit on Tuesday will hear debate over Kennelly’s ruling that tossed the fired United pilots’ lawsuit against the union.

The case turns on the duty of fair representation from the Railway Labor Act, the federal law that governs labor-management relations in the airline and railway industries. Under Seventh Circuit precedent, a union breaches that obligation if its actions are arbitrary, discriminatory, or made in bad faith.