|
 Printer-Friendly Version
Remarks Prepared for
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
94th Annual DOL Honor Awards
Washington, D.C.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Thank you, Howard [Radzely].
Thank you, Sandra Johnson, for that lovely rendition of the National Anthem.
Let me also recognize the Joint Armed Forces Honor Guard from the Military District of Washington.
Welcome, everyone, to the 94th Annual Honor Awards. This is a wonderful event! It is a wonderful occasion to celebrate the dedication and hard work of our colleagues at the Department of Labor.
It's good to see most of the Assistant Secretary's and senior staff. As many of you know, Richard Stickler, the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health, is not be here this morning because he is monitoring the rescue effort of the open pit mine in Garrett County, Maryland. Certainly our thoughts and prayers are with those individuals and their families.
Special thanks to Assistant Secretary Pat Pizzella for, once again, chairing the Honor Awards Committee. Let me also thank the committee for reviewing the many nominations and selecting today's fine group of honorees. And thank you for putting together this wonderful event. You do a terrific job each year.
This year, 235 awards will be presented throughout our Department! Many of these awards will be presented at today's National Office ceremony. However, about 100 of them will be awarded at separate regional ceremonies to be held later. Today's awardees were selected for their outstanding contributions to the Department and for their service to America's workforce.
297 individuals throughout the Department will be recognized with Length of Service Awards for 35, 40, and 45 years of federal service! That's real dedication!
In fact, five of our colleagues, Daniel H. Ginsburg from BLS, Donald A. Ludwig {"Lud-wig"} and Catherine G. Smith from ESA, Paul Ralli {"Rawl-e"} from ETA, and Seth D. Zinman from SOL are celebrating 45 years of service. Please join me in giving these individuals a round of applause!
This year, we also expanded our Veterans' Employment Assistance Award. Each Agency is required by law to reserve at least 3 percent of its contracts for Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses. For the first time, we will recognize 4 agencies for the significant contributions they made towards meeting this goal.
All of today's awards pay special tribute to individuals who have made an important difference in the lives of workers nationwide. Our teammates at DOL have made tremendous contributions on behalf of America's workers.
And while we celebrate our award winners, this ceremony also gives us an opportunity to reflect on the Department's many accomplishments — your accomplishments.
This past year:
- The Department recovered nearly $172 million for over 246,000 workers who did not receive the wages they were due. This represents a 30 percent increase since 2001.
- The Department also posted record results in enforcing equal opportunity rights for individuals working for federal contractors — with an increase in financial recoveries of nearly 80 percent since 2001.
- And since FY 2001, the Department achieved monetary results of more than $9.2 billion for retirees' and workers' health, retirement, and other benefit plans.
- Also, in Fiscal Year 2005 and 2006, the Labor Department achieved Green status scores for all five government-wide initiatives of the President's Management Agenda. The Department is the first — and still the only — Department or Agency to accomplish this goal.
- And on April 3rd, George Mason University's Mercatus Center released its eighth-annual Performance Report Scorecard. At the event, DOL received two awards: Overall Excellence in Performance Reporting — and the Mercatus Center's Forward-looking Leadership Award, which DOL has received all three times the award has been presented. In addition, DOL had the lead agency score under Public Benefits — which recognizes work in documenting tangible public benefits for those whom we serve.
- And the Department maintained last year's overall score of 51 out of 60. {Note: DOL was edged by Transportation (with 53 points) for this year's overall ranking.}
All of our achievements this year have been possible because of a Department-wide effort to work together and to hold our programs and our co-workers accountable. The men and women recognized here today have done an outstanding job! And on behalf of the Department of Labor, I thank you all for making a difference.
Now, please join me in watching the special video that AV has put together highlighting today's awardees. It's always a fun and creative video tribute.
# # #
| 
