crossposted from
unbossed
Another day, another controversial Bush nominee. The controversial nominee de jour is Paul DeCamp to head the
Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division. So what's the problem on the ole DeCamp ground?
First, what is the WHD?
The Wage and Hour Division (WHD) is responsible for administering and enforcing some of our nation's most comprehensive labor laws, including: the minimum wage, overtime, and child labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA); the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA); worker protections provided in several temporary visa programs; and the prevailing wage requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act (DBA) and the Service Contract Act (SCA).
In other words, the WHD is supposed to protect workers from having their pockets picked and to enforce laws that protect especially vulnerable groups.
Wage and Hour became controversial during Katrina as a result of the suspension of its oversight into violations. There was also rampant fraud and legal violations in Katrina's aftermath. In April, WHD agreed to participate in the Deparment of Justice investigations into those issues. For more take a look at the National Immigration Law Center July 6 report And Injustice for All: Workers' Lives in the Reconstruction of New Orleans And additional material here.
So there are ongoing issues of WHD's ineffectiveness. Par for agencies under Bush.
But What Does This Have to Do With DeCamp?
Here is what the AFL-CIO says is wrong:
The Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division is supposed to protect your most basic rights at work. Paul DeCamp, President Bush's nominee to head up the agency, is a doozie.
Get this:
* As a private practice lawyer, DeCamp represented Wal-Mart in trying to prevent a class of 1.5 million women--the largest employment class action ever certified--from suing the company for discrimination in pay and promotions.
* He has proposed taking overtime pay away from workers in ways that were even more extreme than what the administration actually has done--and suggested easy outs for bosses who misclassify workers as not eligible for overtime pay.
* He's represented businesses opposing union organizing campaigns and fighting unfair labor practice charges.
* He's represented an employer appealing a record $40 million dollar sexual harassment verdict.
* And he's fought on the bosses' sides on collective and individual actions involving the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage and hour laws.
It's right there in his bio from a previous gig at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher--one of Wal-Mart's favorite law firms.
What a perfect background to qualify someone for running the federal agency responsible for protecting workers from employer violations of the minimum wage, child labor laws, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act and prevailing wage requirements under the Davis-Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act.
Here is DeCamp's bio on the Gibson Dunn & Crutcher website. And here is what DeCamp's firm lists as their "achievements" in the area of wages and hours. Here in the liberal blogosphere, this sort of bio and this list would not be characterized as "achievements" to be heralded to all the world.
BNA's subscription only Daily Labor Report states:
In challenging DeCamp, Kennedy focused on DeCamp's written answers to the committee where he stated that his current work as a senior policy adviser for DOL's Employment Standards Administration--where he has been since 2005--included work on DOL's efforts in the Gulf Coast after hurricanes Katrina and Wilma. Those efforts, Kennedy said, represented a "fierce indictment" of the Labor Department because of allegations that little has been done to respond to workers' concerns.
. . .
In addition to concerns about DeCamp's work on DOL's efforts on the Gulf Coast, committee Democrats and their allies also took aim at DeCamp's background as a management attorney at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C. His work at Gibson Dunn raised eyebrows from Democrats, including Kennedy and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), because of his representation of Wal-Mart opposing class certification of sex discrimination claims that would include some 1.6 million class members.
DeCamp had the good luck to be paired to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee's Aug. 1, 10 a.m.hearing with also controversial nominee Andrew von Eschenbach (nominated to be commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration). link
More perspectives on DeCamp at Fox and henhouse doesn't begin to describe it - you'll have to scroll down.
No vote is scheduled until September. Or maybe ever?