The White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, chaired by Vice President Kamala Harris and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, announced it sent President Biden 70 “pro-worker” recommendations.
This effort stems from an April 2021 executive order, Presidential Executive Order 14025, establishing the task force, to serve the following purpose:
The Task Force and its members shall identify executive branch policies, practices, and programs that could be used, consistent with applicable law, to promote my Administration’s policy of support for worker power, worker organizing, and collective bargaining.
In this report to the President, there’s frequent mention of promoting “worker organizing” and “collective bargaining” for federal workers, public and private sector workers.
More prominently, page 30 suggests worker misclassification of employees as independent contractors is rampant and in need of urgent fixing. It states, “DOL should continue to prioritize addressing the misclassification of employees as independent contractors through a range of strategies, potentially including strategic enforcement, strategic partnerships with other agencies (e.g., the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Transportation, and state agencies), and guidance documents, research, and outreach/educational initiatives.”