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 Appoints Marvin Kaplan Chair of the National Labor Relations Board
Trump reinstates Republican NLRB member Marvin Kaplan as Chair of the National Relations Board (NLRB), marking a return to the anti-worker and pro-employer position of Trump’s first term.
Impact:
Labor unions and worker groups are preparing for a reversal of pro-worker decisions on the board.
Policy Documents Related to LGBTQ Worker Protections Removed From EEOC Website
EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas removed several policy documents from the agency's website relating to protections for LGBTQ workers. The removed resources include several informational pages on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), which held that federal employment civil rights law prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The EEOC also removed its 2021 technical assistance on Bostock and a fact sheet on the commission's policy that denying an employee access to a bathroom corresponding to their gender identity is a violation of civil rights law.
Impact:
Removing these documents from the EEOC website does not change the law or employer obligations to protect the civil rights of their workers. But the action signals to employers that the EEOC is uninterested in enforcing the law in the way it had done in the past, and makes LGBTQ workers more vulnerable to discrimination.
Policy Documents Related to Technology and Workplace Discrimination Removed From EEOC Website
EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas removed several policy documents from the agency's website dealing with the intersection of digital technology and workplace discrimination laws that were published by former Chair Charlotte Burrows. These include technical assistance on employment selection procedures, the use of wearable technology, and protections for workers with disabilities. It also removed a landing page for the EEOC's initiative examing AI and a report on the lack of diversity in STEM fields.
Impact:
As digital technology, including artificial intelligence, proliferates in our workplaces, workers are more vulnerable than ever to discrimination caused by algorithmic bias. Rolling back the important contributions of the EEOC in recent years will put workers at a further disadvantage when dealing with AI-driven discrimination at work.
OPM issues a memo detailing that military spouses may be exempted from the requirement that they return to phyical offices if they are currently working remotely
This is the rare exception to the broad mandate that federal employees must all return to physical offices.
Impact:
This policy recognizes the unique situation of military families, who move often and whose family members may need remote work arrangements.
Trump Fires NLRB Member Gwynne Wilcox
Member Wilcox was confirmed by Congress for a set term of five years and, by law, can only be removed for "neglect of duty or malfeasance in office." Opposition to the political positions of the President are not grounds for removal. Wilcox will be pursuing her legal remedies to continue to hold her seat on the Board.
Impact:
With her removal, the NLRB now lacks a quorum and cannot issue any decisions. Employers now have greater ability to delay dealing in good faith with their workers who want to form or are in unions.
Trump Freezes All Federal Aid
The Office of Personnel Management issued a memorandum freezing "all federal financial assistance," even though these payments have been properly authorized by Congress.
Impact:
The breadth of the reach of this order is staggering. Among its many effects is to freeze Congressionally authorized payments to state agencies, including those that administer the unemployment insurance programs, federal grantees including non-profit organizations, and could result in immediate lay-offs across the country, not to mention the disruption in vital services these state agencies and organizations provide.
Trump Fires NLRB General Counsel
Jennifer Abruzzo was fired via email on January 27, 2025.
Impact:
Abruzzo was a fierce advocate for the rights of workers to join unions and collectively bargain with their employers. During her tenure at the NLRB, she used every legal lever available to ensure that workers were able to build and exercise power at work.
U.S. Department of Labor Moves to End Legal Defense of Independent Contractor Rule
In 2024, the Department of Labor updated the regulation that governs distinguishing between who is an independent contractor or employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Biden administration rule returned to the six "economic realities" factors test enunciated by the Supreme Court and used by all federal courts to determine whether the worker is operating a geniunely independent business or if they are economically dependent on the employer. The Biden rule is currently in effect, but pausing the defense of it in court signals that the Trump DOL will try to return to the rule it attempted to promulate in its first administration that prioritized only the factors that made it easier to classify someone as an independent contractor.
Impact: People who are misclassified as independent contractors, as opposed to employees, generally lose out on wages, anti-discrimination protections, and social insurance protections such as workers compensation and unemployment insurance. Employers save approximately 30% on labor costs as a result of misclassification, and this results in tax theft to state and federal treasuries, in addition to the protections workers lose out on because of misclassification. If the Trump Administration abandons the Supreme Court economic realities test, it will speed the degradation of job quality and allow employers to engage in tax theft.
Trump Fires At Least 17 Inspectors General, Tasked With Independent Oversight of Federal Agencies
Trump fired at least 17 inspectors general, officials who conduct independent oversight of federal agencies to prevent and address corruption and waste, including the inspector general overseeing the Department of Labor. Congress passed the Inspector General Act in the wake of Watergate crisis.
Impact:
Trump did not abide by the legal requirement to provide Congress with 30 days notice before removing an inspector general. The president will also have the power to nominate their successors. Workers and the public will be more likely to be subject to corruption, lawbreaking, and waste in government decisionmaking absent genuinely independent federal watchdogs.
U.S. Department of Labor Ceases Civil Rights Enforcement Activity
For six decades, the U.S. Department of Labor has had robust enforcement tools to protect the civil rights of federal contract workers under Executive Order 11246. In addition to rescinding that order, Trump has ordered DOL to halt all investigative and enforcement activity of any claims of civil rights violations on behalf of federal contract workers.
Impact: About one-fifth of U.S. workers were covered by Executive Order 11246, and the DOL's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) made up an important part of the nation's civil rights infrastructure. This order requires the agency to stop any actions already in progress to address discrimination in those workplaces. Workers who would have otherwise been compensated for discrimination against them will no longer be made whole, and low-road employers will have a freer hand to discriminate moving forward.