Punching In: Biden GCs Remain in Place After Trump’s First Week

Monday morning musings for workplace watchers.

GCs Remain |DOL DEI Goes | OSHA Fines Increase

Robert Iafolla and Rebecca Klar: Despite a flurry of Day One action from President Donald Trump, one action that hasn’t yet made on the labor front: Firing two key officials.

Many NLRB watchers expected that President Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day termination of Peter Robb, the agency’s general counsel during the first Trump administration, had set a new precedent.

It came as some surprise that Trump fired celebrity chef José Andrés from a presidential council on sports, fitness, and nutrition before removing NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo from her post, said Roger King, senior labor and employment counsel for the employer group HR Policy Association.

While there’s some concern in the employer community that Abruzzo’s continued service stems from the influence of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters—whose president spoke at the National Republican Convention—it’s more likely the result of an administrative backlog at the White House, King said.

Likewise, EEOC General Counsel Karla Gilbride, a Biden appointee, is still in her role at the commission after the first week of the administration change. Gilbride was confirmed in October 2023 for a four-year term, but it may be cut short if Trump follows a pattern of action Biden took in firing Trump’s first term general counsel.

Biden fired Trump-nominee Sharon Gustafson from the spot as top lawyer at the EEOC in March 2021 after she refused to resign.

Rebecca Rainey: President Donald Trump’s executive orders on federal workforce hiring and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs are well underway at the US Department of Labor, however.

Trump signed dozens of executive actions last week impacting the DOL, including ordering most of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs to shutter, instructing agency heads to get rid of DEI-related staff, policies, and documents, and implementing a hiring freeze.

Acting Secretary of Labor Vince Micone instructed agency staff to report any DEI-related personnel or contracts that may be disguised by “coded” language within 10 days, warning of potential “adverse consequences” for failing to do so. The email was based on a template provided in the Office of Personnel Management’s instructions to agency heads on how to implement Trump’s DEI order.

Several webpages related to DEI programs have been scrubbed from the agency’s website, including a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility resource “center” that was created as part of the Biden administration’s “Good Jobs Initiative.” Webpages regarding DEI on the agency’s apprenticeship and Office of Labor Management Standards websites also no longer exist.

In a notice sent to state workforce agencies Jan. 22, the DOL’s training arm instructed all recipients of federal financial assistance awards to cease all activities related to “diversity, equity, and inclusion” under their grants for job training.

Micone also faced a Jan. 24 deadline to direct staff to return to the office full time, according to OPM guidance. DOL employees are expected to comply with the change within 30 days “subject to any exclusions granted by the agency and any collective bargaining obligations.”

The National Council of Field Labor Locals, which represents compliance officers and investigators at the DOL’s field offices across the country, had been fighting efforts by Biden administration leadership to force agency staff to report to the office five days a pay period last year. At the time, the Biden DOL had argued that in-office attendance was not a negotiable issue.

The NCFLL is part of the American Federation of Government Employees, which also separately represents the staff at DOL’s headquarters. The NCFLL and AFGE Local 12 didn’t respond to PI’s requests for comment, but AFGE has vociferously condemned the executive orders.

AFGE President Everett Kelley said that Trump’s team has exaggerated the number of federal workers that telework, adding in a statement that “less than half of all federal jobs are eligible for telework, and the workers who are eligible to telework still spend most of their work hours at their regular duty stations.”

Photographer: Chris Kleponis/Polaris/Bloomberg

Tre’Vaughn Howard: Employers face higher penalties for workplace safety violations, but safety advocates and legal observers say the effectiveness of these penalties to deter hazards ultimately depends on political willpower.

The DOL recently announced higher civil penalties as a result of inflation for 2025. The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act allows for agencies to annually adjust civil monetary penalties that account for inflation.

Congress passed the law in 2015 to adjust monetary penalties by OSHA and other agencies. Before then, penalties were “abysmally low,” said Debbie Berkowitz, who was chief of staff at the regulatory agency under President Barack Obama.

“Deterrence is important because OSHA has really limited resources for inspections,” she added.

Despite the increases, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s penalties have always been seen as low compared to penalties in other statutes, according to Susan Bisom-Rapp, a professor at California Western School of Law.

“The Trump administration campaign has these campaign promises they have to deal with to be worker-friendly and union-friendly, so occupational safety and health might be an area where we see a difference,” said Bisom-Rapp.

Under Trump’s first term, OSHA wasn’t putting efforts toward enforcement as much as previous administrations, Bisom-Rapp said. Vigorous enforcement is required for penalties to truly have that deterrent effect, she noted.

And the enforcement largely depends on the political willpower of both the Secretary of Labor and Assistant Secretary of Occupational Safety and Health, Bisom-Rapp added.

While President Trump hasn’t made any official announcement on who is expected to lead OSHA next, he tapped Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to lead the Labor Department.

“There’s going to be a different sheriff in town, and it’s going to be somebody who has this labor background, although she also has a small business background,” Bisom-Rapp said. “So she has sympathy with how employers might encounter various regulatory obstacles, but at the same time I don’t think she’s going to have the hostility that the Secretary of Labor in the first Trump administration had.”

We’re punching out. Daily Labor Report subscribers please check in for updates during the week, and feel free to reach out to us.