Employment & Labor Insider

It's been a tough week for President Trump, but he doesn't seem to be letting the bad news get him down. 

To avoid ruining the Valentine's Day mood, I'll keep this week's update short.

The Trump actions that have been blocked by the courts (often for only a week or two, not necessarily long term) are too many to mention, and most don't have anything to do with employment law. But this one is interesting:

Stick a fork in it. It's done. I reported last week that a federal judge in Massachusetts had issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Administration's "Fork in the Road" severance buyout offer to federal employees. This week, the judge (George O'Toole, a Clinton appointee) terminated his own TRO on the ground that the plaintiffs   -- federal employees' unions -- lacked standing to sue. So the Administration can now move ahead with the voluntary terminations. Federal workers were offered their full salaries through the end of this fiscal year (September 30) in exchange for their immediate resignations. According to news reports, about 77,000 workers had accepted the deal before Judge O'Toole issued the TRO and then the deadline to accept expired. That's less than the Administration had predicted, but it's still a healthy number.

And for those who did not accept a package, it looks like many will lose their jobs anyway. Involuntary layoffs have reportedly begun.

Can it get any worse for federal workers? Yes. On Tuesday, the President issued an Executive Order imposing a freeze on hiring federal employees. The EO says that once the hiring freeze is over, "agencies will be able to hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart from federal service." The EO also calls for "large-scale reductions in force."

Nominations, nominations, nominations! President Trump announced a slew of nominations on Tuesday. Most have nothing to do with labor and employment law, but a handful do. The President has nominated David Keeling as Assistant Secretary of Labor to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Mr. Keeling, from Kentucky, has his own business as a safety consultant. Before that, he was a transportation safety director for Amazon, and before that he was Vice President of Global Health and Safety at UPS.

The President also nominated a law blogger to head the Employee Benefits Security Administration. (One of us! One of us! One of us!) According to an article on the ALM Benefits Pro website, Daniel Aronowitz “has been a critic of plaintiffs’ lawyers’ wave of suits against ERISA plan fees. . . . He has also objected to suits against employer plans based solely on grounds related to equity, social and governance concerns.”

Last but not least, the President nominated Henry Mack III as Assistant Secretary of Labor to head the Employment and Training Administration. Mr. Mack is from Florida, has an academic background, and is currently chancellor for the Florida Department of Education.

And now, for something that has nothing to do with politics. Here's something more in keeping with the holiday: Have you heard that the latest employment "perk" is giving employees official "sex days" off? I'm not making that up. Can't people just use their PTO for that? Why does your employer need to know exactly how you spend your day off? Too much information. Anyway, according to the linked article, 3 percent of employers are doing it now.

(That was a poor choice of words. When I said "doing it," I meant "giving employees 'sex days' off.")

Good grief. St. Valentine, come to our rescue!