Labor Sec Eugene Scalia faces blowback as he curtails scope of worker relief in unemployment crisis

[Celerity]

Labor Department comes under fire over handling of worker protection, unemployment program

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/10/labor-secretary-eugene-scalia-faces-blowback-he-curtails-scope-worker-relief-unemployment-crisis/

The Labor Department is facing growing criticism over its response to the coronavirus pandemic as the agency plays a central role in ensuring that the tens of millions of workers affected by the crisis get assistance. The criticism ranges from direct actions that the agency has taken to limit the scope of worker assistance programs to concerns that it has not been aggressive enough about protecting workers from health risks or supporting states scrambling to deliver billions in new aid.

In recent days, Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, who has expressed concerns about unemployment insurance being too generous, has used his department’s authority over new laws enacted by Congress to limit who qualifies for joblessness assistance and to make it easier for small businesses not to pay family leave benefits. The new rules make it more difficult for gig workers such as Uber and Lyft drivers to get benefits, while making it easier for some companies to avoid paying their workers coronavirus-related sick and family leave.

“The Labor Department chose the narrowest possible definition of who qualifies for pandemic unemployment assistance,” said Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation who has spent two decades working on unemployment programs. At the same time, frustrations have built among career staff at the Labor Department that the agency hasn’t ordered employers to follow safeguards, including the wearing of masks, recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to protect workers. Two draft guidance documents written by officials at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, part of the Labor Department, to strengthen protections for health-care workers have also not been advanced, according to two people with knowledge of the regulations granted anonymity to discuss the internal deliberations.

Scalia, a longtime corporate lawyer who is the son of the late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, has emerged as a critical player in the government’s economic response to the pandemic. Nearly 17 million Americans have applied for unemployment insurance since President Trump declared a national emergency on March 13, and states are struggling to get their systems working to deliver $260 billion in new aid approved by Congress.

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[2naSalit]

1. There's never enough blowback for that POS. ...nt

[BComplex]

2. Oh shit. I was SO glad when Antonin Scalia died. He was a snake. Now his nazi spawn is a bureaucrat

It just keeps getting worse.

[Celerity]

3. if the Rump somehow steals the election, odds are high Eugene Scalia may well end up on the SCOTUS

That would be such a Trumpian move (as Trump thinks he will be just like daddy)

[crickets]

4. Anyone talking about public assistance that is 'too generous'

really needs a quick hard kick in the dangly privilege they're waving about a bit more freely than they should.