Bush Wage and Hour Nominee Heads to Union-Busting Firm

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/02/08/bush-wage-and-hour-nominee-heads-to-union-busting-firm/

by Mike Hall, Feb 8, 2008

Looks like the former Wal-Mart attorney who has argued against laws protecting workers’ overtime pay no longer is in charge of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division.

Paul DeCamp has taken his anti-worker ideology to one of the nation’s most notorious union-busting law firms, Jackson Lewis. The firm’s slogan, “Preventive Strategies and Positive Workplace Solutions,” sounds harmless—unless you’re one of the workers on the receiving end of the firm’s multifarious tactics meant to harass and intimidate workers seeking to form a union.

DeCamp never won Senate confirmation for the Wage and Hour post, so in August 2006, President Bush circumvented the Senate and used a recess appointment to put him in the job. It’s the same tactic he’s used for other controversial nominees, including Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) chief Richard Stickler.

The recess appointment expired in December and with no hope of confirmation, Bush this week officially withdrew DeCamp’s nomination.

DeCamp’s record includes support for weakening overtime pay standards under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). He even has argued for changing the overtime law to prevent millions of workers from becoming eligible for overtime pay. He also has said it would not be “in the interest” of the employees to obtain overtime eligibility.

He was senior policy adviser to the Labor Department’s Employment Standards Administration, when the division’s failure to stop rampant wage theft involving wage-and-hour violations by employers engaged in Gulf Coast recovery work after Hurricane Katrina.

FULL story at link.