The sexual harassment vote the GOP would like to forget
Republicans may vote on a bill that reverses action they took last year.
By IAN KULLGREN 01/02/2018 06:48 PM EST
Not long before a deluge of sexual harassment claims engulfed Capitol Hill, congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump quietly repealed safeguards to protect hundreds of thousands of American workers from such harassment.
Their target was an August 2016 regulation issued by the Obama Labor Department that required businesses to disclose certain labor violations — including sexual harassment — whenever they bid on large federal contracts.
The vote last year is especially relevant now that Congress, under immense public pressure, is weighing legislation to outlaw the very same secrecy agreements that it voted to keep legal less than a year ago.
The regulation in question was one of 14 reversed by congressional resolutions that Trump signed into law last year as part of his much-touted war against “job-killing regulations.” Besides requiring disclosure, the rule forbade the biggest federal contractors from forcing workers to take their grievances to arbitration, where employees are likelier to lose, than in the courts; in addition, the private proceedings are typically kept secret.
more
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/02/sexual-harassment-republicans-vote-320229?lo=ap_d1
