| | | | |  | | By Lawrence Ukenye | |  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed its first lawsuit under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act last week. | David Zalubowski/AP | | | EEOC GOES ON OFFENSE: Last week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission launched its first lawsuit against an employer for violating the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act — a law passed as part of the 2022 omnibus spending bill aimed at expanding workplace accommodations like rest breaks and reprieve from lifting heavy objects. The suit targets Wabash National Corporation, a Kentucky-based manufacturer, for denying a pregnant employee the ability to transfer out of a job that required her to lie on her stomach as well as for forcing her to take unpaid leave and return to her role without any accommodations. The suit claims that Wabash also unlawfully requested the worker provide medical information. “The EEOC will continue to use all its tools – including enforcement, education, and outreach — to ensure workers are aware of their rights, and that employers meet their responsibilities under this new law,” EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows said in a statement. A Wabash spokesperson told Shift that the company has always been committed to taking care of pregnant employees and complying with the law. The company said it will be responding to the EEOC’s suit “in due course.” The case marks a noteworthy escalation for the agency, which has largely played defense on the law thus far as more than a dozen conservative attorneys general have taken swings at parts of the statute for its abortion-related language. Some workers have run into roadblocks while attempting to seek accommodations under the PWFA. EEOC General Counsel Karla Gilbride told reporters during a press call that while employees have benefited from the law, some employers have forced workers onto unpaid leave, even requesting medical documentation as if the employee was seeking a disability accommodation. Employers treating pregnancy as a disability not only risks violating the PWFA but goes against provisions in the Americans With Disabilities Act that bar employers from seeking medical information that isn’t job related, she said. "If you're having morning sickness or you need to use the bathroom more often because you're pregnant, that's a pretty common sense thing and I think pregnancy is well understood and it just may not be reasonable to seek medical documentation for some of these things,” Gilbride continued. GOOD MORNING. It’s Monday, Sept. 16. Welcome back to Morning Shift, your go-to tipsheet on labor and employment-related immigration. Send feedback, tips and exclusives to nniedzwiadek@politico.com and lukenye@politico.com. Follow us on X at @NickNiedz and @Lawrence_Ukenye. Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories.
| | TANGLED UP: The Federal Trade Commission is urging a federal judge in Pennsylvania not to delay its case upholding the agency’s noncompete ban — despite a different judge in Texas striking it down, our Josh Sisco writes in. “Although a single district court judge in another circuit has entered an order that ‘set[s] aside’ the Rule nationwide, that order will not necessarily overtake Plaintiff’s claims in this case,” Justice Department lawyers wrote on behalf of the FTC. A web of cases: After the FTC finalized a ruling banning most non-compete agreements, it faced a trio of challenges from a tree trimming service in Pennsylvania, a tax prep company in Texas and the operator of a large retirement community in Florida. Judges in Texas and Florida struck down the ban for different reasons, with the court in Texas nixing it for the entire country. The Pennsylvania court ruled for the FTC. Next steps: The “government is actively considering whether to appeal that final judgment [in Texas] and expects to make that decision promptly,” the DOJ lawyers wrote, saying it would be improper for the Pennsylvania court to put its winning case on hold based on nonbinding rulings from other circuits. More agency news: "Biden’s Overtime Rule Faces Trouble Despite Fifth Circuit Nod," from Bloomberg Law.
| | |  General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Sean O'Brien speaks during the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 15, 2024. | Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images | THE BIG DAY: The International Brotherhood of Teamsters will meet with Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday as the union mulls which candidate to endorse after sending mixed signals in recent months, our Brittany Gibson reports. How we got here: The union, which historically endorses Democrats, announced earlier this month that it had secured a meeting with Harris. But Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien frustrated many of his members by speaking at the Republican National Convention in July and praising GOP lawmakers. Weeks later, he slammed Donald Trump for promoting “economic terrorism” when the former president quipped about firing striking employees during an interview with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. A guideline, not a mandate: The former president’s appeal to rank-and-file union members means that a Teamsters endorsement might not drastically move the needle for Harris’ campaign at this point, especially with most major unions already backing her. An internal straw poll from the beginning of the summer — before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race — found that more than a third of Teamsters members planned to vote for Trump, while roughly 45 percent supported Biden. More union news: "Boeing Machinist Strike Adds Cash Crunch to New CEO’s Rescue Mission," from The Wall Street Journal.
| | | NO TAXES ON OT?: Trump told supporters at a campaign rally last week that he plans to exempt overtime pay from federal taxes, a move that experts say could come with a significant price tag for the federal government, our Benjamin Guggenheim reported. Excluding behavioral effects from the policy, a Tax Foundation analysis estimates that Trump’s plan could cost roughly $227 billion annually. But the cost would likely be even higher as employees feel incentivized to request more overtime hours. Democrats’ pushback: Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) scorned the proposal, arguing that it would guarantee cuts to social security and that “Republicans have no intention of passing this stuff.” The reaction stands in stark contrast to how Democrats responded to Trump’s plan to eliminate taxes on tips, which Vice President Harris also adopted after culinary unions cheered the costly proposal. More election news: "Kamala Harris says she will cut degree requirements for certain federal jobs," from Reuters.
| | PLAYING WITH FIRE: The California Professional Firefighters union called Trump’s rhetoric on withholding aid to the state’s firefighters “ignorant” and “dangerous,” the Los Angeles Times reports. What they said: “He would rather watch our state burn in the name of his political games, than to send help if he were to become president again,” union president Brian Rice said in a statement. Context: The former president told supporters that, if elected in November, he would halt federal firefighting aid to the state unless California Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted water and tax policies favorable to him. “The automobile industry is dead, the water coming here is dead, and Gavin ‘Newscum’ is gonna sign those papers,” Trump said at a rally over the weekend. “And if he doesn’t sign those papers, we won’t give him money to put out all his fires.”
| | THE ‘MERRY-GO-ROUND’: The Mexican government is bussing migrants heading north to the U.S. back to southern parts of the country, a move that’s proved successful in reducing the number of illegal crossings, The Washington Post reported. The tactic, known as the “merry-go-round,” was implemented as a cost-saving effort and after Mexico’s high court ruled that migrants could only be detained for 36 hours. Mexican authorities logged more than 712,000 apprehensions during the first half of the year after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressured the country to ramp up its enforcement. More immigration news: “Why Thousands of Haitians Have Settled in Springfield, Ohio,” from The New York Times.
| | | FIRST IN SHIFT: Workers’ rights nonprofit Lift Our Voices is launching a testimonial series featuring sexual assault survivors who’ve benefited from the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act. The law — which Biden signed in 2022 — amends the Federal Arbitration Act by allowing sexual assault survivors to pursue their claims in court, even if they are bound by arbitration. "Right now, more than 60 million workers continue to be subject to forced arbitration," Julie Roginsky, the organization's co-founder said in a statement. "It’s time for our country’s leaders to fix this glaring issue across corporate America and hold employers accountable to protecting the very workers who fuel their profits."
| | | | — "Germany signs agreement with Kenya to bring in skilled workers and plug labor market gaps," from the Associated Press. — "For decades, Chinese workers have retired relatively early. That’s about to change," from CNN. — "Nippon Steel Finds Unlikely Ally in Pittsburgh Workers," from The Wall Street Journal. — "Kamala Harris helped shut down Backpage.com. Sex workers are still feeling the fallout," from our Josh Gerstein and Paul Demko. THAT’S YOUR SHIFT! | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
