Above photo: Union of Southern Service Workers.
Among the DOL’s proposals is a rollback that could cause an estimated 3.7 million home health care workers to be paid less than the federal minimum wage.
And be ineligible for overtime pay.
This month, the US Department of Labor, led by Trump-appointed Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, announced a proposal to repeal 63 workplace safety rules in what the Department called “aggressive deregulatory efforts” in order to “put the American worker first.”
The regulations that the DOL has dubbed “obsolete” include eliminating minimum wage and overtime protections for millions of home health care workers, rolling back protections for farm workers, rescinding a requirement for employers to provide adequate lighting at construction sites, weaken safety standards in the mining industry, and limit the authority of OSHA to protect workers in what the DOL dubs “inherently risky professional activities” such as entertainment or journalism.
Both workplace deaths and nonfatal injuries declined in 2023 from comparative statistics in 2022. The drop in total injuries was largely due to the large decrease in respiratory illnesses following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the Biden administration, OSHA attributed a decline in worker death investigations to “stronger enforcement and collaboration with labor and management,” including OSHA’s National Emphasis Program on Falls, the leading cause of injury and death in the construction industry.
The decrease in federal regulations worries many in the labor movement. “People are at very great risk of dying on the job already,” said Rebecca Reindel, the AFL-CIO’s occupational safety and health director. “This is something that is only going to make the problem worse.”
Home Health Care Worker Wage Protections Under Attack
One of the DOL’s proposals could cause an estimated 3.7 million home health care workers, who care for sick or elderly people in their homes, to be paid less than the USD 7.25 federal minimum wage and be ineligible for overtime pay. The DOL’s proposal rolls back 2013 Obama-era regulations back to a 1975 framework, which exempts third-party home care agencies from paying federal minimum wage or overtime to workers providing so-called “companionship services” to seniors and people with disabilities.
According to the DOL, the 2013 regulations “might discourage essential companionship services by making these services more expensive.”
“We are the people looking after your elderly, you’re sick, and you want to cut us out?” asked Shakia Calhoun, a member of the Union of Southern Service Workers, who worked for many years as a home health care worker. “These are some of the most necessary jobs in our society. It’s hard to be a home care worker. I have back pain from lifting patients every day and am still dealing with health issues from that. I had to leave because of the strain on my body. They’re making these proposals to make the rich richer, with no care about working people or their families. This country would have nothing without our work. There is no American prosperity at the cost of the people.”
