Democrats Demand Answers on DOL Book Burning

Democrats are fighting back. Earlier this week, Confined Space reported that numerous OSHA health and safety documents had been banned and removed from OSHA’s website.

Yesterday, Democratic leaders of the House Education and Labor Workforce Committee sent a sharply worded letter to Acting Labor Secretary Vince Micone, demanding answers about why OSHA deleted web pages on worker hazards like toxic chemicals and workplace violence as part of President Donald Trump’s war on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies.

Education and Workforce Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Ranking Member of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee, Ilhan Omar (D-MN), noted that DOL officials seem to be guided by a list of banned word “without any regard for the context in which words are used” to satisfy President Trump’s executive orders on so-called “gender ideology” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion,”

The letter notes, for example, that “workplace violence guidance describes one health care facility’s creative approaches as including an effort by managers to assemble ‘a diverse group of trainers— bedside nurses, team leaders, nursing supervisors, human resources staff, critical care personnel, medical/surgical staff, and security workers—with the aim of providing mentors, coaches, and ‘champions’ throughout the hospital.'”

DOL officials seem to be guided by a list of banned word “without any regard for the context in which words are used” to satisfy President Trump’s executive orders on so-called “gender ideology” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” 

And banned ergonomics guidelines “all advise employers that gender can be a factor, along with age and length of service, in a worker’s risk of musculoskeletal injury.”

It is difficult to imagine how the ergonomic guidance documents in particular—which were developed by OSHA during the administration of President George W. Bush, as an offering by then-Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao to address the threat of disabling musculoskeletal disorders in lieu of a promised standard that never, ultimately, materialized—could ever be deemed guilty of “gender ideology.”

The Congressional leaders also condemned OSHA’s order to destroy existing written documents:

OSHA’s staff should be focused on making workplaces safer, not erasing valuable information for arbitrary reasons. If you are destroying documents, we demand that you cease doing so and refocus on DOL’s mission to protect workers’ lives and livelihoods.

Scott and Omar promised to keep monitoring the situation and also requested that by February 28, DOL

1. Provide a chart of all documents that have been pulled from DOL’s websites, including the title, the original URL of the document, and a detailed explanation of the reason for its deletion from the website.

2. Provide all documents and communications between January 21, 2025, and the date of this letter regarding implementation of Executive Orders 14,151 and 14,168, review of documents for any keywords, elimination of documents from the DOL website, physical destruction or recycling of documents, and whether to continue or end distribution of documents.

If you are destroying documents, we demand that you cease doing so and refocus on DOL’s mission to protect workers’ lives and livelihoods.

They ended with a strong condemnation of Trump’s actions weakening oversight of the Department of Labor

In the aftermath of President Trump’s firing of the DOL Inspector General, there is now a void of oversight for DOL as a very young and inexperienced team and their leader, the world’s richest man, who operates with “autonomy ‘almost no one can control,’” gain dangerously broad powers to infiltrate DOL’s internal systems.

At stake are the integrity of investigations into workplace health, mine safety, and child labor violations, including the identity of witnesses and workers who file complaints; the personal privacy of workers and families who receive medical and financial support from the black lung program and other workers’ compensation programs; the confidentiality of whistleblowers under dozens of whistleblower protection laws; the trustworthiness of market-moving Bureau of Labor Statistics data; and confidential business information of countless companies, exposure of which could upend the nation’s economy. We expect a prompt, thorough, and accurate response to this request and future inquiries.

Some Retreat?

The public outcry over the Department of Labor’s book burning may be having some effect. (Or, in some cases, maybe embarrassed OSHA leadership realize how stupid they are looking.)

A few of the previously banned publications are back on the website.  For example, the “Small Entity Compliance Guide for the Respiratory Protection Standard,” which teaches small employers how to properly use respirators is back up even though it contains the word “gender,” although “Assigned protection factors guide for the revised respiratory protection standard” is still banned.

The factsheet on “Workplace Mental Health” has also reappeared (and probably in high demand these days.) And the Alliance with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has also reappeared, as have Alliances with Partners for Safe Trenching and Excavation Operations and the National Demolition Association.

Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs in Construction is still down (possibly because it states that “Greater diversity in the construction workforce means that people from different backgrounds and cultures are working alongside each other, often speaking different languages.”)

Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs in general industry, on the other hand, is back up, even though it contains the same paragraph. Go figure…

But all of the subversive ergonomics publications are still banned, as well as publications on workplace violence.