4.2 DOL Strategic Goal 2 -- A Secure Workforce

DOL STRATEGIC GOAL 2: A SECURE WORKFORCE Promote the Economic Security of Workers and Families OUTCOME GOALS: Increase compliance with worker protection laws Protect worker benefits Increase employment and earnings for retrained workers Total Budgeted Amount for this Goal (in Billions): FY 2000 - $26.0 FY 2001 - $33.2

DOL is committed to protecting workers' hours, wages, and other conditions when on the job, providing unemployment and compensation benefits when workers are unable to work, and expanding, enhancing, and protecting workers' pension, health care, and other benefits.

Department of Labor programs and agencies that support this strategic goal include the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA); the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC); the Employment and Training Administration's Unemployment Compensation programs; Trade Adjustment Assistance and North American Free Trade Agreement (TAA/NAFTA) programs; Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Dislocated Worker Assistance; the Employment Standards Administration's Wage and Hour Division; Office of Labor- Management Standards and Workers' Compensation programs; and the Office of the Inspector General.

For Strategic Goal Two, the Secretary of Labor has established the following key priorities:

• Domestic Child Labor: The Department continues its commitment to reducing workplace injuries and fatalities to young workers in America, with initiatives aimed at eliminating domestic violations of child labor laws and enhancing education and outreach efforts as part of the "Safe Work/Safe Kids" program.
  
  
• Pensions and Health Care: The Department continues to support the Health Benefits Education Campaign that the Secretary launched in December 1998 to address major life and work altering events – job loss, divorce, death of a spouse, or loss of dependent status – which may affect health benefits.
  
  
• Trade Adjustment Assistance: The Department proposes to consolidate, reform and extend the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) and NAFTA- Transitional Adjustment Assistance programs for workers who lose their jobs due to trade policies. The resulting program would expand eligibility for TAA benefits to cover workers who lose jobs when production shifts abroad, would raise the cap on training expenses, and would guarantee funds for unexpected cost increases.
  
  
• Universal Reemployment: Through the President's Universal Reemployment initiative, the Department plans to provide all dislocated workers who want and need assistance the resources to train for or find new jobs, expand and increase quality of employment services now available to all job seekers, enhance services for the individuals receiving unemployment compensation; and ensure availability of the One Stop System, either personally or electronically, to help find jobs and training. Among the programs included in this effort are WIA Dislocated Workers Employment and Training activities, a new initiative addressing the needs of incumbent workers, One Stop Career Centers, and Grants to States for Reemployment Services.

The new Incumbent Workers initiative is intended to address the major job losses in the manufacturing industry where a half million jobs have been lost since March 1998. The program will boost the skills and wages of non-management U.S. workers through competitive grants to States to train and upgrade the skills of incumbent workers and, through local partnerships, help firms with training, thereby preventing displacements before they occur.

The FY 2001 outcome and performance goals for this strategic goal follow. Detailed information on every performance goal, including indicator, data source, baseline and explanatory comments, can be found in Appendix B.

Means and Strategies

Operating Agencies: ESA, PWBA, PBGC

Sustained Efforts in FY 2001:

• DOL will continue initiatives to increase compliance with labor standards by: targeting certain low-wage industries for focused education/outreach and enforcement interventions; targeting child labor compliance, particularly in agriculture and other selected industries where data indicate that the risk of serious injury to young workers is greatest; building partnerships with other governmental, non-governmental, and business organizations to promote compliance; and, enhancing the scope and effectiveness of ESA's education and enforcement interventions to obtain lasting future compliance. (2.1A, B, C, D)
  
  
• DOL will continue to measure compliance results achieved by establishing baselines of compliance in targeted industries through ESA's investigation-based compliance surveys, and conducting subsequent compliance surveys in those industries in which baselines have already been established. (2.1A, B, C, D)
  
  
• DOL will continue its initiative to rewrite the Child Labor Hazardous Orders to reflect current workplace technologies and hazards. DOL will continue to effectively respond to the requirements of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1990, and the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996. (2.1A, B, C, D)
  
  
• DOL will investigate complaints concerning union officer elections, supervise remedial union officer elections, and conduct audits and civil and criminal investigations to enforce Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) standards for union democracy and financial integrity. DOL also will secure reports required from unions and others under the LMRDA and make them available for public disclosure. (2.1E)
  
  
• DOL will foster partnerships with international unions to promote voluntary compliance with LMRDA standards by affiliates and will provide compliance assistance to union officials. ESA's program of compliance assistance contacts will be continued that targets unions scheduled to elect officers in FY 2001 whose previous election was investigated by the agency. A program of contacts at ESA's field office level to obtain timely reports by unions with receipts of more than $200,000 that were delinquent in the prior year will be continued. A program of seminars for trustees of small unions will be continued to provide assistance and training in use of the ESA-developed guide for trustees in conducting audits in small unions. DOL will provide outreach to union members to promote the objectives of the LMRDA. (2.1E)
  
  
• DOL will continue to target and investigate pension, health care and other plan violations where participants are most susceptible to actual loss of benefits, or "populations" of plan participants who are potentially exposed to the greatest risk of falling victim to unlawful conduct. The solicitor will continue to support PWBA's enforcement efforts by pursuing litigation to remove bad actors and to make financial recoveries on behalf of plan participants. (2.1F & G)

Significant New or Enhanced Efforts in FY 2001:

• DOL will accelerate progress toward achieving labor law compliance for garment and farm workers by providing needed additional resources for ESA enforcement staff – increased in FY 1999 and FY 2000 -- to make more effective and sustained interventions, including better detection of violations, more timely litigation, developing appropriate cases for criminal prosecution, and enhancing education and outreach efforts. While the Department has been vigorously pursuing and elaborating its compliance strategy in these sectors, progress is slow, worker exploitation is still very common, and it has become increasingly clear that sustained efforts are required. (2.1A, B, C, D)
  
  
• DOL will enhance its ongoing child labor compliance initiative by expanding on its current focus on the garment industry and agriculture. DOL will seek to increase compliance with child labor safety standards and reduce on-the-job injuries and fatalities of young workers in those selected industries where data indicate the risk to young workers is greatest. DOL will increase its compliance activities, enhance its cooperative efforts with the States, and forge additional partnerships with national, multi-establishment firms employ large numbers of young workers and with employer and employee organizations to improve youth safety in the workplace. (2.1A, B, C, D)
  
  
• DOL will continue the development and begin ESA's implementation of its Technology for Excellent Customer Service (TECS) system that will provide nationwide toll-free access to (1) promptly identify and refer calls unrelated to Wage and Hour activities to the appropriate agency; (2) answer commonly asked questions quickly and accurately; and (3) eventually accept complaints alleging violations and refer them electronically to the proper field office. (2.1A, B, C, D)
  
  
• DOL will assure an effective compliance program in the Pacific territories, especially in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), where over 90 percent of the private sector jobs are held by guest workers who are the subject of pervasive exploitation. Because of serious pervasive violations, continued enforcement and litigation-- which is both challenging and expensive given the location--is necessary to realize effective protection of workers in the CNMI. (2.1A, B, C, D
  
  
• DOL plans to test and implement computer-based improvements to the LMRDA reporting and public disclosure program initiated by ESA in FY 1998. The improvements include a system for the electronic submission of LM-2, 3, and 4 union annual financial reports, an Internet-based public disclosure system, and a computerized desk audit system to detect reporting deficiencies and permit better targeting of reporting enforcement efforts. DOL will further develop the Internet-based public disclosure system to incorporate union trusteeship reports and reports filed by employers, consultants, union officers and employees, and surety companies under the LMRDA. (2.1E)
  
  
• DOL will enforce the new health care provisions in ERISA to ensure there is compliance with the new health care laws. (2.1G)

Cross-Cutting Programs and Issues

To carry out its several enforcement responsibilities, ESA cooperates with the DOJ, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), Department of Defense (DOD), General Services Administration (GSA), Health and Human Services (HHS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and others, as well as coordinates with other internal DOL agencies such as the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and the Solicitor of Labor. Cooperative efforts include partnership between the ESA/Wage and Hour Division and ETA relating to migrant and seasonal labor issues, and programs designed to increase compliance in the "Salad Bowl" and poultry processing industries. ESA works with DOD and the GSA with respect to applicable wage determinations for government contracts. ESA/WHD works closely with ETA, USDA, and the states to explore the interaction of workplace laws and welfare reform. ESA/WHD is a key player on DOJ's Worker Exploitation Task Force.

The ESA/Wage and Hour Division is the lead agency in the Department coordinating the Secretary's domestic child labor initiative, "Safe Work/Safe Kids." This is a multi-prong strategy of enforcement, education, and partnerships to ensure that young people have opportunities for legal, constructive early work experience which is safe and enhances, rather than competes with, their education. Two multi-year performance goals have been added to reflect this Secretarial priority.

In accordance with the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA), the Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) provides one-stop service as a clearinghouse for ESA WHD/OFCCP compliance assistance information, inquiries and comments on enforcement activity. OSBP serves a cross-cutting function by coordinating with ESA and other DOL enforcement agencies on customer/stakeholder feedback to resolve problems and improve agency operations.

ESA's enforcement programs maintain close ties and share information with other law enforcement agencies. In Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) criminal enforcement matters, cooperation may extend, as appropriate, to participation in joint investigations with other federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as well as other DOL agencies. Each initiative to coordinate with other agencies is designed to increase compliance with worker protection laws leveraging resources, reducing overlapping activity, and utilizing the strengths of each entity.

In addition, PWBA and SOL coordinate enforcement, policy, regulatory, and public information programs with numerous federal, state, and local entities in carrying out the Department's ERISA and Federal Employee Retirement Security Act responsibilities. Under ERISA, DOL/PWBA shares enforcement responsibilities with the Treasury Department, the IRS, and DOL's Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). Cooperation with these agencies promotes increased benefit coverage by minimizing regulatory and administrative burdens, to the extent appropriate, with respect to ERISA's statutory and regulatory requirements.

Additionally, DOL/PWBA often coordinates enforcement actions with financial institution regulatory agencies, such as the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission, state insurance and financial regulatory entities, DOL's Office of Inspector General, as well as with the enforcement agencies such as the FBI, US Postal Service, and state and local law enforcement agencies.

The President's "Worker Exploitation Task Force", co-chaired by the Solicitor of Labor and the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, facilitates criminal investigations and prosecutions involving undocumented foreign nationals who are lured to this country and then exploited. The task force consists of representatives from DOJ's Civil Rights Division, Violence Against Women Office, and Office of Victims of Crime, as well as the FBI, INS, DOL, and the State Department. 

Outcome Goal 2.2 Protect Worker Benefits FY 2001 Performance Goals

A. Unemployed workers receive fair UI benefit eligibility determinations and timely benefit payments: 1) Increase to 26 the number of states meeting or exceeding the minimum performance criterion for benefit adjudication quality. 2) Increase to 48 the number of States meeting or exceeding the Secretary's Standard (minimum performance criterion) for intrastate payment timeliness. B. Increase by 2% benefit recoveries achieved through the assistance of Pension Benefit Advisors. C. Increase by 1% the number of workers who are covered by a pension plan sponsored by their employer, particularly women, minorities and workers in small businesses. D. Return Federal employees to work following an injury as early as appropriate indicated by a 2% reduction from the FY 2000 baseline in the average number of productions days lost due to disability for all cases. E. Produce $95 million in cumulative first-year savings (FY 1999-2001) through Periodic Roll Management. F. In the FECA program, reduce the overall average medical service cost per case (adjusted for inflation) by .5%. Reduce the average annual cost for (condition type) cases by x% through focus reviews of services charged. G. Each area of the country will be surveyed for all four types of construction at least every three years, and the resulting wage determinations validly represent locally prevailing wages/benefits. In FY2001, if a Davis-Bacon reengineering approach is pursued, complete development of all aspects of a reengineered system. If a Davis-Bacon reinvention approach is pursued, implement all necessary changes. H. Reduce by 1 year the average time frame to send final, accurate benefit determinations to participants in defined benefit pension plans taken over by PBGC.

Means and Strategies

Operating Agencies: ETA, ESA, PWBA, PBGC, WB, SOL, OIG

Sustained Efforts in FY 2001:

• Develop and implement improvements to UI PERFORMS to enhance performance planning, facilitate performance achievement, and assess the effectiveness of program improvement efforts. ( 2.2A)
  
  
• Engage in ongoing discussions with states, employers, and claimants to improve communication, identify issues and needs, and promote input in the design of programs. ( 2.2A)
  
  
• DOL will provide a prompt and courteous response to all benefit inquiries made with PWBA and furnish the complainant with an understandable explanation of the outcome or PWBA's review and investigation and in appropriate cases, make inquiries on their behalf. (2.2B)
  
  
• DOL will promote greater overall levels of retirement savings by encouraging individuals to begin saving at a younger age; improving individuals' understanding of their savings options and the consequences of their choices and encouraging businesses, especially smaller companies, to provide greater educational services to their employees. As part of this effort, PWBA will increase the number of targeted educational materials distributed which promote pensions for women, minorities, and small businesses. (2.2 C)
  
  
• DOL will promote increased benefit coverage by PWBA's continued work with other Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) Agencies (Treasury and IRS) to minimize regulatory and administrative burdens with respect to the requirements of the ERISA. For example, this is accomplished by exploring alternative means of compliance such as the electronic filing of plan documents. DOL and the other ERISA agencies have already worked to shorten the Form 5500 annual report filed by pension and other benefit plans. (2.2C)
  
  
• DOL promotes a secure workforce by making ESA's Federal Employees' Compensation Program a model for workers' compensation programs. FECA's non-adversarial structure allows DOL to work in partnership with employee unions and Federal agencies to achieve better outcomes. DOL will emphasize early return to work as a winning outcome for both workers and employers. (2.2D)
  
  
• DOL will continue building new and improved automated data processing tools to support the timeliness and quality of Federal employee compensation case handling, case management, and return to work. (2.2D)
  
  
• To support the Federal Worker 2000 Presidential initiative, DOL will report ESA's progress in reducing disability days against a baseline. (2.2D)
  
  
• Using the FECA future benefit liability model developed by ESA in FY 1999, DOL will share forecasting information and work with Federal employing agencies to reduce benefit costs. (2.2D)
  
  
• DOL will continue the Quality Case Management Program in which new injury cases receive early intervention from nurses allowing case management to begin at a point when it can be much more effective. Telephone intervention in the Continuation of Pay period, initiated in FY 2000, will be used to further reduce disability days. (2.2D)
  
  
• DOL will take the lead in working in partnership with all Federal employing agencies to speed new injury reporting so that earlier case management can begin, improve the flow of information to improve the quality of case handling, and promote light duty and other new job opportunities for returning workers to work. (2.2D)
  
  
• DOL will improve overall management of its Federal Employees' Compensation Fund, and will implement technology upgrades to improve service and to reduce costs and customer burdens. (2.2E & F)
  
  
• Via the Periodic Roll Management system, expanded in FY 1999 and incorporated into FECA's overall case management process, DOL will continue to review long term cases on the disability roll and reevaluate case status for changes in medical condition and potential for return to work. (2.2E & F)
  
  
• DOL will continue to apply fee schedules to medical, pharmacy and hospital services under FECA and will continue the use of sophisticated software to screen incoming FECA medical bills for duplicate charges and abusive billing practices. (2.2E & F)
  
  
• DOL will start implementing the Davis-Bacon reengineering/reinvention approach selected in FY 2000 as the best long-term avenue for improving the timeliness, accuracy, and reliability of Davis-Bacon wage determinations. The goal (for FY 2002) is for ESA to be able to survey every area of the country for all four types of construction at least every three years. (2.2G)
  
  
• DOL will assume responsibility for under-funded defined benefit pension plans where necessary to ensure that participants' pension benefits are continuously provided. More than 2,900 trusteed plans (with 500,000 participants) will be under PBGC's management in FY 2001. To manage this workload PBGC will continue to improve in the delivery of customer service by listening to customers and assessing ways to better meet their needs. (2.2H)
  

Significant New or Enhanced Efforts in FY 2001

• Develop Federal or model State legislation that will ensure the availability of unemployment benefits in the event of a recession, encourage States to make the program more accessible to unemployed workers, and provide the administrative resources necessary to operate and improve State administrative operations and service delivery, in cooperation with State partners and stakeholders. (2.2A)
  
  
• Through ESA's Office of Workers' Compensation Program work with OSHA, DOL will assist Federal agencies in reducing injuries and reporting injuries timely in keeping with the goals of Federal Worker 2000. (2.2D)
  
  
• PBGC will improve its ability to provide estimated benefits, and will send more frequent information to participants. (2.2H)
  
  
• DOL will monitor activities and assist states in their efforts to promote retirement savings. The SAVER Act of 1996 requires DOL to assist states to organize and conduct conferences in conjunction with a National Summit to take place in 2001. Accordingly, PWBA will help coordinate and fund mini-Summits in up to 5 states. (2.2C)
  
  

Cross-Cutting Programs and Issues

DOL will work closely with the Congress, States, Treasury, OMB, the Council of Economic Advisors and National Economic Council, and stakeholders to ensure the integrity of the Unemployment Insurance Fund, reform Unemployment Insurance administrative financing, and expand the safety net for low-wage workers who lose their jobs. In addition, links will be forged with SSA for electronic exchange of data to increase the speed and accuracy of determinations on UI claims, thus reducing both errors and fraud. DOL/ETA also will continue to work with Treasury, SSA, and BLS to develop harmonized wage definitions, simplify tax reporting, and enhance electronic reporting in order to reduce employers' costs of submitting tax forms and provide ETA and other agencies with more timely information for ensuring program integrity. ETA will continue to work with States and BLS to improve accuracy and accessibility of UI data, particularly the accuracy of claim data used for economic indicators, and the accessibility to State wage records for program outcome data on post-program earnings for a variety of workforce development programs.

DOL will work across agencies to provide more effective job-finding services to support both better income replacement to the involuntary unemployed by lowering benefit exhaustion, while keeping the aggregate UI tax burden low and promoting high employment levels. To fulfill the Department's employee benefit plan responsibilities, PWBA works with HHS, Treasury, the National Economic Council, the Bureau of Census, BLS, the Thrift Savings Board, the Solicitor's Office, and the SBA. PWBA has established a federal-state-local partnership to help employee benefit plan participants who are at risk, (e.g., dislocated workers) understand not only their rights, but also how their employment status may affect their pension and health benefits.

The Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA) program involves every federal agency in the filing and management of injury compensation claims. The FECA program coordinates with the Office of Personnel Management on matters of benefit elections, and in some specialized claims, with state and local police agencies on matters of entitlement and benefits. Federal agencies that undertake special initiatives work closely with FECA program offices at the national and regional levels to evaluate best practices. Other efforts improve communication and cooperation to reduce lost productivity due to workplace injuries. Through the Agency Query System (AQS), the Department provides secure, on-line information to enable agencies to provide better service to their injured employees and assist in FECA claims processing and case management. In new injury cases, the Department assigns nurses to coordinate among injured workers, agencies, and medical providers to resolve issues and facilitate recovery and return to work. ESA's OWCP is working in partnership with all federal agencies to improve timeliness of injury claims submissions -- in part through expansion of electronic links for claims submission -- and to increase re-employment opportunities, and has established ongoing measures of agency performance, which are posted on the Internet.

On July 2, 1999 the President signed the Federal Worker 2000 initiative requiring Federal agencies to reduce new workplace accident/illness rates, speed the timeliness of reporting new injuries to the Department of Labor, and reduce lost production days rates. In FY 2000, ESA/OWCP will work with federal agencies to meet these goals by intervening in lost time cases, providing case management, and tracking disability time lost during the Continuation of Pay period immediately following an injury. ESA/OWCP will work in tandem with OSHA to help agencies reduce accidents/illnesses as well as speed return to work.

Outcome Goal 2.3 Increase Employment and Earnings for Retrained Workers FY 2001 Performance Goals

A. By 2001, of those registered under the WIA dislocated worker program, 76% will be employed in the first quarter after program exit, and 81% will be employed in the third quarter after program exit with 100% of pre-dislocation earnings. B. Upon exit from the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) or NAFTA Transitional Adjustment Assistance (NAFTA-TAA) programs, 73% will be employed in the third quarter after exit with 82% of the total pre-dislocation earnings. C. During the initial year of funding, an estimated 30 grants serving an estimated 20,000 participants will be awarded for the incumbent workers initiative.

Means & Strategies

Operating Agency: ETA

Sustained Efforts in FY 2001:

• DOL will provide access to training and reemployment services to more dislocated workers through increased ETA formula-funded grants to states and discretionary emergency grants and dislocated worker education on services available and access points by continuing support of the national toll-free telephone system.. (2.3A & B)
  
  
• DOL will expand and enhance ETA's coverage of trade adjustment assistance by supporting the enactment of TAA reform legislation which provides for certification of workers displaced by shifts of production to offshore locations, increases the funds available for worker retraining and reduces the time provided for the issuance of TAA certifications. (2.3B)
  
  
• DOL will assist communities in developing comprehensive economic adjustment strategies to deal with dislocations with community-wide impact by continuing to work with other Federal agencies to support such strategies. (2.3 A, B & C)
  
  
• DOL will improve capability of dislocated worker service deliverers by sharing lessons learned with the workforce investment system and others through conferences, ETA's web site, and other means of dissemination. (2.3A & B)
  
  
• DOL will improve services to dislocated workers who are likely to exhaust Unemployment Insurance benefits under ETA's Worker Profiling and Re-employment Services component of the workforce system by providing Wagner-Peyser Act and WIA Title I re-employment services (e.g., job search workshops, counseling, referrals to suitable openings) and other needed assistance. (2.3A & B)
  

Significant New or Enhanced Efforts in FY 2001:

• DOL will visit and provide operational and technical assistance to Incumbent Worker grantees to ensure that they become fully operational in the shortest time period and to avoid problems in program start-up. (2.3 C)

Cross-Cutting Programs and Issues

The Department collaborates with other federal agencies, including Commerce, SBA, HUD and Treasury, and state and local governments in economic development and community adjustment efforts in areas affected by worker dislocations, including trade-impacted regions. These government entities work with the Community Adjustment and Investment Programs at the North American Development Bank to help to increase employment opportunities for dislocated workers.

Through the creation of America's Learning Exchange, ETA is helping to create a training marketplace to link training providers with individuals and employers who need new skills. The Exchange involves a partnership with 16 states, the Public Broadcasting System, and the American Society of Training and Development.