Worker Safety Standard Enforcement Policies

NATIONWIDE

Population: Any | Government type: Any | Topic: Worker Rights Enforcement

OVERVIEW

Labor laws are only as strong as the enforcement mechanisms that ensure employers abide by them. Those mechanisms are strengthened by explicitly and formally including worker organizations in aspects of the labor law enforcement process. It also includes potentially contracting with community organizations to support robust community partnerships that conduct widespread education and refer violations to city agencies. This is sometimes called "co-enforcement.". 

The longest-standing example of this is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)’s Susan Harwood Training Grant Program, created in 1978. Through this program, OSHA awards grants to organizations “to provide training and education programs for employers and workers on the recognition, avoidance, and prevention of safety and health hazards in their workplaces and to inform workers of their rights and employers of their responsibilities” under OSHA. 

More recently, several local and state agencies have created formalized and funded partnerships with worker organizations including unions, worker centers, and community-based organizations. Specifically, San Francisco and Seattle have contracted with worker organizations to conduct outreach and community education regarding municipal labor standards laws, and to refer cases to the office. 

In 2003, San Francisco passed an ordinance with various anti-wage theft provisions related to the city’s minimum wage law and Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement (OLSE). The ordinance established a community partnership or “co-enforcement” program, and the city began to contract with community-based organizations on enforcement efforts in 2006.

On the state level, the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) has engaged in a multi-year pilot community partnership program in which the Irvine Foundation has funded community organizations to partner with the DIR in enforcement of labor laws. In this partnership, there are teams of DIR employees matched with community partners/worker organizations based on specific problematic industries (janitorial, restaurant, construction, agriculture, domestic workers, home care, etc).

Finally, in response to the pandemic, Los Angeles County created a program for workers to form public health councils to help ensure that employers follow coronavirus workplace safety guidelines. This new effort is just starting. 

As with the prior examples, the plan in Los Angeles County is for the worker organizations to conduct outreach and community education, refer cases, and generally serve as a bridge to the government enforcement agency. However, this partnership is more extensive in that teams meet regularly to discuss trends in the relevant industries, and propose strategic approaches to drive compliance more effectively. Also, worker groups provide referrals not just of specific worker complaints, but also of industry bad actors. The level of collaboration in this partnership is more intensive and the ongoing team-based approach fosters ongoing relationships, as well as joint strategic planning and ongoing communication. 

In addition to the above examples, in other instances, government agencies have built strong, formalized partnerships with worker organizations without creating a funded program.

Collaborative Governance

Community organizations were central in pressing for creation of these programs. For example, the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) played a leading role in establishing the program in San Francisco. After Proposition L raised the minimum wage in San Francisco to $15 / hr in 2003, CPA took the lead in establishing a broad community coalition to help the Board of Supervisors draft legislation to expand and clarify the OLSE’s authority to enforce the law. The legislation also required OLSE to create a community outreach program for education and to help immigrant and minority communities combat wage theft violations.

These partnerships also helped build stronger worker and grassroots institutions (through funding), that can partner with unions and serve as many workers' initial experience organizing. They also formalize a role for community organizations with government, ensuring ongoing access, consultation, conversation, and government valuing of community input. Finally, they help build worker leadership within those institutions.

Emphasis on equity

Low-wage workers are disproportionately BIPOC and immigrants. Studies have shown they experience higher levels of workplace violations, and greater incidence of workplace retaliation for raising concerns, so enforcing their basic workplace rights helps advance racial justice. In addition, many low-wage worker organizations are run by and/or serve BIPOC and immigrant workers. Funding these organizations and incorporating them into the enforcement process also serves the goal of advancing racial justice. 

The funded models directly shift resources to worker organizations, including underfunded, but sometimes high-impact, worker centers. It also helps increase the power of these organizations because they gain credibility, training, and access through the formalized connection with the government agency. Corporate interests and employers often have many ways to influence agencies and policy. Formalized community partnerships with worker organizations (funded or not) provide grassroots worker groups with an institutionalized, ongoing role and connection with government actors.

Analysis

• Preemption: These programs do not present preemption concerns. They do not require setting of legal standards, and could be incorporated to enforce existing standards at the state and local level. 

• Policy impact: Funding the community group ecosystem to have a formal role in enforcement -- allowing for insight and input into the process -- is a critical component of implementing workplace protection legislation once passed by local governments.

Last updated: January 19, 2021

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