On Thursday, just before the Memorial Day Weekend, the Obama administration quietly released its Spring 2015 Unified Agenda and Regulatory Plan, which has “more than 2,300 regulations in various stages of planning and lays out the administration’s regulatory plans for the coming months,” according to the Daily Caller.
Among the 2,300 proposals, slated for execution in December 2015, is the Department of Labor’s 160-page proposed re-interpretation of the 1959 Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act was blasted by individuals and professional associations alike during the open period for public comments.
As noted in 2013:
The DOL’s proposal was written so broadly that the agency could end up going after companies who hire anyone who advises them on almost anything related to employees that could “indirectly” affect employees in the exercise of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act.
For example, as originally drafted, if an employer hires either any attorney, firm, or consultant who advises the employer in:
- Developing or writing an employee handbook
- Conducting an employee satisfaction survey
- Setting up employee focus groups or roundtables
- Setting up a safety committee
- Setting up employee compensation…
…all of these could be deemed “persuader activity” under the DOL’s proposed re-interpretation of the 1959 law.
Worse yet, as the information disclosed by companies and their advisors becomes public information almost immediately, the DOL’s proposal may, in fact, put some individuals who assist employers during labor disputes into physical danger.
“This is not the first time the Obama administration has released its regulatory agenda right before a major holiday, when such things might go unnoticed,” states NewsMax.”
