Labor Department Curbs Announcements of Company Violations

After President Trump’s inauguration in 2017, it was unclear if his administration would continue the practice. But after Alexander Acosta, Mr. Trump’s first labor secretary, was sworn in that April, the department largely resumed its publicity strategy, albeit with less frequency.

Under the Obama administration, the news releases “tended to be scathing, inflammatory, embarrassing for the company,” said Eric J. Conn, a lawyer who represents employers in OSHA enforcement actions and follows the department’s releases closely. “There was a lot of, ‘This company made employees choose between their lives and a paycheck, that sort of tone.’”

“What was really surprising to us was when the Trump administration started issuing press releases again, they maintained those D.O.L. and OSHA official quotations,” Mr. Conn added. “They were maybe marginally less inflammatory, but they still followed that same pattern.”

That appeared to continue through the pandemic. In the second week of September, the department issued a series of news releases citing employers for Covid-related violations. Among them was a release about a plant owned by the pork producer Smithfield Foods and a separate release about a plant owned by its fellow meatpacking giant JBS, both of which were cited for “failing to protect employees from exposure to the coronavirus.”

“Employers need to take appropriate actions to protect their workers from the coronavirus,” OSHA’s Denver-area director said in the release about JBS.

Arthur G. Sapper, a lawyer at Ogletree Deakins who represents employers in such matters, said such releases undermined the rule of law.

“Employers spend decades and resources, often in the millions of dollars, to ensure their good name, and they treat their customers well, and they believe they treat employees well,” Mr. Sapper said. “But with one press release issued by a prosecution-minded agency without any review by an impartial observer, all that can be destroyed. And it stays destroyed even if the employer is later vindicated.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/23/business/economy/labor-department-memo.html