President-elect Donald Trump has selected Republican US Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (Ore.) to serve as Secretary of Labor during his next administration.
Chavez-DeRemer, if confirmed by the Senate, will be expected to pilot the agency into a more business-friendly policy approach, starting off with tossing several regulations recently finalized by the outgoing Biden administration.
Those include measures to expand overtime pay eligibility to millions of workers, allow for the consideration of environmental, social, and governance factors in employee retirement investments, and raise the bar for classifying gig workers as independent contractors, among others.
“Lori has worked tirelessly with both Business and Labor to build America’s workforce, and support the hardworking men and women of America,” Trump wrote when announcing the pick via the Truth Social platform Friday. “I look forward to working with her to create tremendous opportunity for American Workers, to expand Training and Apprenticeships, to grow wages and improve working conditions, to bring back our Manufacturing jobs.”
Under the incoming Trump administration, labor observers forecast that the agency will pivot away from the Biden DOL strategy of using strict enforcement and legal action to deter employers from ignoring federal labor law, and instead focus on providing more compliance assistance to help employers understand the rules.
Chavez-DeRemer would also take over the agency as it’s been grappling with how to mitigate the negative effects of artificial intelligence on workers rights and the labor force as a whole. The Biden administration released a series of guidance documents outlining best practices and legal risks employers should consider, but so far hasn’t engaged in any enforcement or regulatory actions in that space.
Chavez-DeRemer lost her reelection bid earlier this month, serving only one term as a representative of Oregon. Before her work in Congress, Chavez-DeRemer was mayor of Happy Valley, Ore, according to her congressional website.
Union Endorsed
Chavez-DeRemer earned the endorsement of Teamsters’ President Sean O’Brien for her support of Democrats’ Protecting the Right to Organize Act, a sweeping overhaul federal labor law strongly opposed by businesses and other Republicans.
The legislation includes provisions to create new penalties for labor violations, override state right-to-work laws, and codify a strict employment classification test that would make it much harder for employers to use independent contractors.
Her sponsorship of that bill could potentially sink her nomination, as the business lobby is vehemently opposed to the policies sought by the legislation. In particular, the PRO Act would enact California’s “ABC” worker status test at the federal level, which presumes a worker is an employee under federal labor laws.
The test has been broadly opposed by management-side organizations and businesses including
Organizations representing freelancers have also said that standard would force workers into employment relationships when they prefer the freedom to set their schedule and choose their work assignment as independent contractors.
Biden’s Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su was unable to win enough votes for confirmation as DOL chief in part due to her role in helping the state implement the “ABC” test when she was California Labor Secretary.
Industry Response
Business groups have signaled they may be willing to lobby against Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination.
Kristen Swearingen, chair of the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, which represents hundreds of business groups, issued a statement urging President-elect Trump to scrutinize her nomination closely.
“A Secretary of Labor should work to protect workers and employers’ rights and promote economic growth. Chavez-DeRemer’s support of the PRO Act raises legitimate concerns about her possible nomination,” Swearingen said in a statement ahead of Trump’s announcement that Chavez-DeRemer had been nominated. “We hope President-Elect Trump gives careful consideration to her past support of this anti-worker, anti-business legislation as he evaluates her candidacy.”
The International Franchise Association also issued a statement congratulating Chavez-DeRemer, but warned that the group “looks forward to ensuring the job-killing PRO Act and Biden-era joint employer standard have no place in the incoming administration.”
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