Go in to the personnel area of any private employer and you will see a wall covered in posters and notices. As mandated by Congress and the various governmental agencies that oversee employee rights and safety, the wall serves as a resource for workers. However, an Office of Compliance report argues you won’t find similar information in any Congressional office or workplace.
When Congress passed the Congressional Accountability Act (CAA) of 1995 it failed to provide the same information for employees of the legislative branch. The independent Office of Compliance, part of the apparatus behind the scenes of any Congress, has issued its report for the 113th Congress. It identified several areas where there are “parity gaps” in training, protections and problem resolution between the legislative branch and rest of the Federal government and the private sector.
The OCC identified several areas of concern:
- Lack of raining of employees about workplace rights and legal remedies
- Lack of notice-posting of rights under anti-discrimination and other workplace rights laws
- No prosecution of employing offices for retaliating against employees who report safety and health hazards
- Lack of and failure to inform employees of protections against retaliation for whistleblowers who disclose violations of laws, rules or regulations, gross mismanagement, gross waste of funds, abuses of authority, or substantial and specific dangers to public health
“Examples of workplace rights that apply to Congress through the CAA include Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Nevertheless, in passing the CAA, Congress omitted significant statutory provisions from these laws including mandatory training, notice-posting and recordkeeping requirements.”
Legislative employees are not protected from employer actions for serving on jury duty, filing for bankruptcy or for have their salary garnished due to indebtedness. Perhaps the most egregious exemption is the lack of protection for whistleblowers from employer actions.
Along with statutory and regulatory changes, the CAA is asking that Congress redesignate the Office of Compliance under Title 2 of the United States Code Section 1381 as the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights. It is unclear if any of the recommendations of the CAA will be implemented by the new Congress.
