Murray Slams Trump Rollback of Key Worker Protections: “It’s an Outright Grift and Workers Should be Furious”

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and the former chair on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, issued the following statement on the Trump administration's moves to roll back worker protections. Today, the Trump nominee-packed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced its decision to formalize the return of the first Trump administration's joint employer rule. This coincides with this morning's announcement from the Department of Labor of its intent to rescind the Biden Administration's employee and independent contractor classification rule.

"Every day, little by little, the Trump administration is rigging the system to benefit giant corporations and shortchange workers-it's an outright grift and working people should be furious. The joint employer rule is nothing more than a return to Trump's anti-worker policies that let giant corporations skirt their basic obligations to employees-Trump is giving the biggest corporations cover to deny workers their ability to band together for better wages and working conditions and leaving millions of workers in the lurch, vulnerable to egregious violations of their rights.

"At the same time, today, the Trump administration announced they're working to rescind the independent contractor rule. Trump wants to let giant corporations classify workers as contractors so that they don't have to pay them minimum wage and overtime-these workers deserve fair pay.

"Under the Trump administration, giant corporations get giant tax breaks paid for by cutting Medicaid-the health care that the poorest workers are forced to rely on. Now, Trump wants those same corporations off the hook for every benefit, protection, and dollar they'd otherwise owe to millions of workers-it's a shakedown. Republicans are proving time and again, they don't care about workers-they don't want to even let workers have crumbs, but billionaires can get trillions in tax breaks that will blow up our national debt. I am going to keep fighting for laws on the books that protect workers and build an economy that grows the middle-class, not just profit margins for the largest corporations on earth."

Senator Murray has long led efforts in Congress to shield against employee misclassification and protect workers' rights. In January of last year, Senator Murray forcefully condemned President Trump's illegal firing of NLRB Member Gwynne Wilcox and the firing of Jennifer Abruzzo-Murray has consistently called for the immediate reinstatement of Wilcox and condemned Trump's move as a breach of the NLRB's independence. Senator Murray is fighting to pass-and is the original Senate author of-the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which, among other things, would close loopholes that allow employers to misclassify their employees and deny them protections under the law. Among many other pieces of pro-worker legislation, Murray also leads the Wage Theft Prevention and Wage Recovery Act, to fight wage theft and protect workers hard earned wages, and the Paycheck Fairness Act to combat wage discrimination and help close the pay gap, and has helped lead the fight for paid family and medical leave since she first joined Congress. Most recently, Senator Murray reintroduced her Bringing an End to Harassment by Enhancing Accountability and Rejecting Discrimination (BE HEARD) in the Workplace Act, in response to Trump and Andrea Lucas, Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), eliminating workplace anti-harassment guidance and attacking transgender workers for using the locker rooms, bathrooms, and private spaces. BE HEARD takes critical steps to address workplace harassment, protects against discrimination based on gender identity and sexuality, and ensures workers can seek accountability and justice.

In December 2023, Senator Murray led 21 of her colleagues in a letter in support of the Biden Administration's proposed rule to reinstate the joint-employer standard and she fought efforts to weaken the historic joint-employer standard under the previous administration at every step of the way. She continuously opposed the first Trump administration's attempt to overturn the historic standard and led her colleagues in opposing its rule eroding the standard, which was finalized in 2020.

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