Creative agency enforcement aims to fill gaps in employment law protections
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), which traditionally focused on enforcing antitrust and consumer protection laws, recently and publicly declared its new priority of enforcing work-related protections. According to this new policy, the FTC is now dedicating substantial enforcement resources to ending anti-competitive practices that harm “workers’ wages, job quality and other aspects of gig work.” To that end, the FTC is using its fair-competition tools to address three main ways that companies exploit so-called independent contractors: (1) deceiving contractors working for the companies about the amount of costs the contractors will incur and the amount of money the contractors can make, (2) limiting contractors’ ability to work for competing companies, and (3) colluding with other companies to create or maintain unfair pay, benefits, and other working conditions for contractors.
The United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) also recently announced their joint efforts to enforce workplace rights more comprehensively and effectively. To memorialize their mutual commitment to achieving workplace fairness across the country, the DOJ and the DOL executed a Memorandum of Understanding. In that regard, the DOJ’s Antitrust Division now collaborates closely with the DOL to combat wage fixing, wage theft, and the misclassification of employees as so-called independent contractors. In addition, the DOJ's Environmental Crime Section is enhancing its worker-protection initiative to prosecute workplace safety violations with the increasing coordination of the DOL. These important developments undoubtedly will make the enforcement of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and other important employment laws more meaningful going forward.