NorthJersey.com: If Trump Weakens Federal Worker Protections, Can NJ Fill In the Gap?

Labor advocates are wondering how effectively New Jersey could step up to protect workplace safety and worker rights, if the Trump administration tries to defang the federal agencies that have traditionally handled that role.

Those same labor advocates are nervous about how federal agencies designed to protect worker safety, wage laws and workplace discrimination will fare under President Donald Trump and an administration that has already moved aggressively to cut staff at major agencies across the federal government.

Trump has already made several moves to fetter some agencies designed to protect workers.

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What can states do?

In November, the National Employment Law Project published six recommendations for creating state-level labor rights:

• Bolster overtime rules for salaried, white-collar workers so that more salaried workers are eligible for overtime
• Implement state-level workplace heat standards, which are already being proposed in New Jersey
• Curb non-compete agreements
• Boost labor union rights such as unemployment benefits for striking workers, which New Jersey already does, and put information online about the right to organize
• Broaden state-level antitrust enforcement that codifies federal rules
• Create a searchable database of enforcement data and violations