Following a Congress marred by two employer-misconduct scandals, the Office of Compliance is for the first time recommending that all legislative branch employees undergo mandatory workplace rights training.
Included in the agency’s biennial “State of the Congressional Workplace” report released this week, the recommendation is part of an ongoing effort to standardize harassment training in Congress after the 2009 resignations of Reps. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) and Mark Souder (R-Ind.).
In response to the Massa scandal, and at then-Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s suggestion, a section on workplace laws was added to last month’s new Member orientation. But the OOC is taking the Maryland Democrat’s proposal one step further by advising Congress to “mandate anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation training for all employees and managers,” according to the report.
This training would inform employees in Congress and its support agencies how to seek legal remedies to workplace violations. It would also inform managers of their obligations as employers.
Though the training is the only new recommendation in the report, the OOC once again highlights several laws that Congress applied to the private sector and the executive branch, but not to itself.
The Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 applied 12 civil rights, workplace safety and health laws to Congress, but legislators exempted themselves from several statutes.
For instance, the OOC has no authority to investigate retaliation claims, as the Department of Labor can in the private sector. Rather, staffers have to shoulder the cost of litigation on their own.
“While employees have reported to OOC’s safety inspectors instances of harassment and other acts of retaliation because they reported hazards, under current law, the OOC cannot initiate or investigate these claims,” the report states. The report does not detail how prevalent the retaliation claims are in the Capitol complex.
Congress should amend the law to “reflect current workplace rights norms in the private sector and the executive branch,” Barbara Camens, chairwoman of the OOC’s board of directors, said in a statement. “Most of these rights and protections have been fundamental and basic to the private sector for many years.”
The OOC wants the same authority to subpoena health and safety information from legislative branch offices as the Department of Labor has over private companies. Though Congress can provide the OOC with information when asked, it cannot be compelled to.
“Absent such authority, a recalcitrant employer under investigation could easily delay or even disable regulatory agencies from conducting an adequate investigation,” the report states.
That proposal already has bipartisan opposition. House Administration Chairman Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) said Friday that the recommendation seems far-fetched.
Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.), who led the GOP transition group dealing with House operations, said it would be a “hard sell” because “Republicans would argue there’s too much bureaucracy and interference now, we certainly don’t need it here.”
Rep. Dennis Kucinich said the rules are unnecessary because they already apply to Congress in spirit and it’s a matter of individual responsibility to see them through.
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Roll Call has launched a new feature, Hill Navigator, to advise congressional staffers and would-be staffers on how to manage workplace issues on Capitol Hill. Please send us your questions — anything from office etiquette, to handling awkward moments, to what happens when the work life gets too personal. Submissions will be treated anonymously.
