DOL announces Office of Compliance Initiatives

Nashville, TN — Secretary of Labor R. Alexander Acosta on Aug. 28 announced the opening of the Office of Compliance Initiatives, a cross-agency effort that the Department of Labor claims will complement DOL enforcement activities “by strengthening and innovating compliance assistance outreach.”

A major part of the new education effort, which will be coordinated by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, is the launch of the websites worker.gov and employer.gov.

OCI will provide leadership and support to DOL’s enforcement agencies, advancing the expansion and development of innovative approaches to compliance assistance and enforcement, a DOL press release states. The mission of OCI will include:

• Facilitating and encouraging a culture that promotes compliance assistance within DOL.
• Providing employers and workers with access to high-quality, up-to-date information about their obligations and rights under federal labor laws and regulations.
• Assisting enforcement agencies in developing new strategies to use data for more impactful compliance and enforcement strategies.
• Enhancing outreach to stakeholders.

“OCI will promote greater understanding of federal labor laws and regulations, allowing job creators to prevent violations and protect Americans’ wages, workplace safety and health, retirement security, and other rights and benefits. As part of its work, OCI will work with the enforcement agencies to refine their metrics to ensure the efficacy of [DOL’s] compliance assistance activities,” DOL states in the release.

Acosta made the announcement during a national safety symposium hosted by the Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association.