ARLINGTON, Va., Jan. 17, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress are taking square aim at a number of the signature labor and employment policies put forth during the Obama administration, according to Bloomberg Labor & Employment Outlook, a publication product of the company's Daily Labor Report team. It is available on Bloomberg Law and a complimentary copy is online at http://on.bna.com/gCT6307WIzJ.
"The Trump administration this year will most likely focus on doing what it can, in concert with Congress, to undo the previous administration's policies," said Karen Ertel, News Director, Labor & Employment, Bloomberg BNA. "This will be a multipronged, complex process involving all three branches of government and will not be completed in short order."
Highlights of the Outlook include:
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB): Trump appointees could quickly fill two vacancies on the board, which may then overturn the Obama administration's pro-board worker initiatives. The NLRB may modify its definition of joint employment under the federal labor law. Business also may push to change the board's approach to determining appropriate voting units in union representation elections and move away from rules that allow ''micro-units'' of similar employees to unionize.
Supreme Court: The Court returns this month with a number of cases that have implications for labor and employment law. The justices are being asked to determine whether the ERISA exemption extends to religiously affiliated hospitals with pension plans covering thousands of employees and potentially billions of dollars in underfunded liabilities. The Court will also decide cases on transgender rights and presidential appointment power.
Immigration: The Trump administration's focus will be squarely on enforcement, likely making it a more difficult and longer process to hire foreign workers. Employers should expect beefed-up immigration enforcement, including an increase in investigations of I-9 employment verification forms as well as the return of work-site raids. On the legislative front, bipartisan support would be necessary for any movement due to the GOP's slim Senate majority. Administrative action appears more likely than legislative change.
Congress: Republican lawmakers hope to capitalize on their control of Congress and the White House by beating back a wide range of Obama administration labor agenda items and pushing new bills to update and clarify federal workplace laws. Via legislation or administrative action, the GOP-led Congress will work in collaboration with the Trump administration to try to undo initiatives such as the overtime rule, the Labor Department's fiduciary rule, which imposes new conflict-of-interest restrictions on retirement investment brokers, and new labor violation disclosure requirements for federal contractors.
Labor Department: The Trump Labor Department seems likely to expend more energy undoing the Obama legacy than putting forth its own agenda. The blueprint for the agency's plans is unclear, but it may proceed by undoing a number of worker-protection regulations such as the persuader, Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces, overtime, and fiduciary rules.
Bloomberg BNA publishes a number of 2017 outlooks across business areas that address the policies likely to shape the year ahead. To view them all, visit https://www.bna.com/2017-outlook.
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SOURCE Bloomberg BNA
