News Release

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OASP News Release: [04/02/2003]
Contact Name: Elissa Pruett
Phone Number: (202) 693-4676

Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao Discusses Efforts to Assist Businesses in Complying with Labor Regulations

WASHINGTON—U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao spoke to members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce today about the U.S. Department of Labor’s increased efforts to help employers understand how to comply with the Department’s employment laws and regulations.

Under Chao’s leadership, the Labor Department has placed a significant emphasis on increasing its compliance assistance efforts to better protect the wages, health benefits, retirement security, safety and health of America’s workforce. Chao emphasized that increased compliance assistance does not replace or in any way detract from strong enforcement.

“With this new compliance assistance initiative, the Department has initiated a comprehensive program to reach out to employers and employees to educate them about our nation’s employment laws,” said Chao. “There is a new era of responsibility at the Department of Labor to help the regulated community understand these exhaustive rules and regulations.”

As part of this new effort, Secretary Chao recently created an Office of Compliance Assistance Policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy. This office is headed by a highly respected career Senior Executive Service professional, Barbara Bingham.

The Secretary also announced two new compliance assistance tools, the FirstStep Employment Law Advisor and the Employment Law Guide.

The FirstStep Employment Law Advisor is a new e-tool, available at www.dol.gov/elaws, that helps employers determine which laws administered by DOL apply to their business or organization and provides easy-to-access information on how to comply with the laws’ requirements.

The Employment Law Guide describes the Department’s main laws and regulations in plain language for employers needing introductory information to develop wage, benefit, safety and health and nondiscrimination policies for their businesses. It is available both online and in print, in both English and Spanish. Copies are available free of charge by calling the Department’s Toll-Free Information Service at 1-866-4-USA-DOL.

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