ERIC Number: ED381662
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1995-Apr-4
Pages: 22
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Department of Labor: Rethinking the Federal Role in Worker Protection and Workforce Development. Testimony before the Subcommittee on Human Resources and Intergovernmental Relations, Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. House of Representatives.
Crawford, Clarence C.
The Department of Labor's (DOL's) worker protection functions touch the lives of nearly every worker. Its approaches to carrying out these functions may have met the needs of an earlier time, but today's work world presents new demands and challenges to the federal government's traditional role. Today it is time to question the DOL's role in the areas of worker protection and work force development. According to employers and employees, DOL's approach needs the following: greater service orientation, improved communication, increased employers' and workers' accessibility to compliance information, and expanded meaningful input into the standard-setting and enforcement processes. By developing alternative regulatory strategies that supplement and, in some instances, replace its current labor-intensive approach, the DOL can carry out its statutory responsibilities in a less costly, more effective manner. Similarly, in the work force development area, the nation's job training programs have become increasingly fragmented and unclear. What exists today, spread across many federal agencies, is a patchwork of federal programs with similar goals, conflicting requirements, overlapping populations, and questionable outcomes. The roughly $20 billion appropriated in fiscal year 1995 for job training assistance to adults and out-of-school youth is disbursed to 15 agencies, including the DOL, which supports 163 separate programs. The current situation suggests that a major overhaul and consolidation of programs is needed to create a more efficient, effective work force development system. (This report contains two appendixes: (1) major statutes and executive orders governing workplace regulation and (2) list of 45 publications on work force development and worker protection.) (KC)
Descriptors: Economic Development, Employer Employee Relationship, Employment Practices, Federal Government, Federal Legislation, Federal Programs, Futures (of Society), Government Role, Labor Conditions, Labor Force Development, Labor Legislation, Labor Needs, Labor Standards, Laws
U.S. General Accounting Office, P.O. Box 6015, Gaithersburg, MD 20884-6015 (first copy free; additional copies $2 each; 100 or more: 25% discount).
Publication Type: Opinion Papers; Legal/Legislative/Regulatory Materials
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: General Accounting Office, Washington, DC. Health, Education, and Human Services Div.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A