Worker Policy Watch
Your source for accurate and reliable information on how federal policies are shaping workers’ rights—and what’s at stake for working people nationwide under the Trump administration.
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Trump Administration Eliminates ICE Policies that Protected Immigrant Victims of Crime and Civil Rights Violations from Civil Immigration Enforcement
The Acting ICE Director rescinded ICE policies dating back to 2011 that directed ICE officials to employ a victim-centered approach, including by refraining from civil immigration enforcement against immigrant victims of crime and immigrants involved in proceedings to enforce their civil rights, including through labor disputes.
Impact:
The rescission of these policies means immigrant workers who have experienced labor trafficking and other labor or criminal abuses will be more vulnerable to removal even while they are attempting to enforce their labor and employment rights or seeking immigration relief based on these abuses. This will increase ICE’s role in undermining labor standards and chilling workers from reporting abuse to labor agencies or other law enforcement.
US DOL removes pages from its website
DOL has removed important information from its website, making it harder for workers to understand their rights and know what DOL's role is in enforcing them. Worker.gov and employer.gov, sites aimed to make the laws DOL enforces accessible to the public are down and being "updated," all of the blogs, videos, and information about Tradeswomen Building Infrastructure Grants have been removed from the Women's Bureau page, and some information about UI and how people can participate in the regulatory process have also been taken down.
Impact:
Workers now have less plain language information about their rights and how to enforce them. An agency committed to effective enforcement of its laws should be committed to posting more information rather than taking it down.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Stops Processing Claims of Discrimination Against LGBTQ Workers
Trump-appointed leadership at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) directed staff to stop processing claims of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Impact:
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that this type of discrimination is illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which the EEOC enforces. Workers who face discrimination may still report their claims to the agency, but it is unclear if and when the agency will act on them as it is required to do under the law.
Trump Administration Orders Federal Agencies to Bar Transgender People from Bathrooms Matching Their Gender Identity
Trump appointees at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) directed federal agencies to restrict access to single-sex spaces, like bathrooms, based on “biological sex.”
Impact:
This action is part of a broader set of attacks on both LGBTQ people and federal workers in the opening days of the Trump administration. The administration’s insistence on imposing a biologically inaccurate gender binary will harm the civil rights of transgender people who spend time in federal buildings and create a hostile work environment for federal workers.
Trump Signs Laken Riley Act, a Threat to Immigrant Workers and Job Standards
Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law, which drastically expands mandatory immigration detention solely on the basis of arrest or charge without due process – including for low-level offenses like petty theft. This costly and wasteful law will unleash chaos on the immigration system.
Impact:
Unscrupulous employers now have another powerful tool to threaten, exploit, and retaliate against immigrant workers, which drives down job quality for workers across the economy. An employer could, for example, make false charges of theft by a worker and if local officials arrest or charge that individual, ICE would be required to place them in immigration detention. Even the threat of such action will give employers tremendous leverage to intimidate their workers and subject them to abusive conditions like unsafe workplaces or wage theft.
Trump Admin Increases Pressure On Federal Workers To Resign
Trump Administration Sends OPM email to federal workers urging them to resign but labor groups urge caution.
Impact:
The Trump Administration is using pressure tactics like this email to achieve their stated goal of forcing 5%-10% of the federal workforce to quit. The email offers legally dubious terms and borrows language purportedly used by Elon Musk in private sector layoffs. Federal workforce labor groups urge caution and are advising workers against being tricked into resigning, possibly without pay.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sends an email to millions of federal employees trying to convince them to resign by February 6th with potentially illegal promises to pay them through September
Eerily reiminiscent of the email Elon Musk sent Twitter employees once he purchased the app, the Trump administration is trying to coerce and scare civil servants into quitting their jobs with not-so-thinly veiled threats that they could be fired soon. Experts in federal employment law and appropriations believe the offer of pay through the end of September 2025 if people resign by February 6th is well beyond the power of the Administration and OPM to offer.
Impact:
The Administration is trying to hollow out the civil service by scaring people into resigning their jobs. This will impede the federal government's ability to enforce laws, deliver important and often life-saving services, and to generally ensure the smooth functioning of the government that supports the entire country.
Trump Fires EEOC General Counsel Karla Gilbride
Trump fired the EEOC's General Counsel, Karla Gilbride, an exceptional public servant and the first person with a known disability to serve in that role.
Impact:
Ms. Gilbride was an effective leader of the agency's enforcement division, which won a record $700 million in relief for about 21,000 victims of employment discrimination. Workers will be worse off without her advocacy on their behalf at the agency.
Trump Fires EEOC Commissioners Charlotte Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels
In an outrageous attack on civil rights and the rule of law, Trump fired Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioners Charlotte Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels. The EEOC enforces our nation’s civil rights laws in the workplace as an independent agency – where commissioners are confirmed by the Senate to serve set terms, are not a part of the president’s cabinet, and may not be removed because of ideological disagreements with the president.
Impact:
Similar to firing NLRB Board Member Wilcox, firing these commissioners means that the commission will not have a quorum and cannot take votes on policy or enforcement of civil rights laws. Making the EEOC inoperable will make workers more vulnerable to discriminatory exploitation and further entrench inequality and occupational segregation.
Federal employees receive an email from OPM offering them “buyouts” to resign by February 6, and work through September 30, 2025.
This email mirrors the one that Elon Musk sent to Twitter employees once he purchased the platform. It is part of Trump's and Musk's plan to dramatically shrink the federal workforce.
Impact:
Trump and Musk are trying to drive out hard-working federal employees and to gut agencies of their expertise and experience. If successful, their actions will have long-term consequences for the vital services that agencies across the government provide. In addition, experienced federal sector employment attorneys question the legality of some of the terms offered in the buyout, so federal employees should be careful before accepting the offer. Update: On February 6th, a federal district court judge ordered the original February 6th deadline for the Trump Administration’s “buy-out” program be extended, pending argument now scheduled for Monday, February 10.