On January 9, Hilda Solis abruptly resigned from her post as the Secretary of Labor. Solis presided over one of the most pro-labor periods of the Department of Labor's history, and no one expects things to change in President Obama's second term. Solis had deep ties to organized labor, and it is likely that her replacement will have a similar background. Simply, if you are hoping for a person with a business background to be elevated to the post, you will almost certainly be out of luck.
The Department of Labor has been working on a number of controversial regulations which are likely to gain speed in a second administration. One of the most controversial would be a "right to know" regulation, requiring employers to provide a classification analysis to workers advising them of the reasons they were classified as either employee or independent contractor. Obviously, such an analysis would be a goldmine of information for plaintiff's lawyers to use to sue employers who are alleged to have incorrectly analyzed an employee's duties. In the last four years, Solis has stepped up enforcement of wage and hour laws by creating a referral system for complainants to a network of plaintiff's lawyers, and offering an "App" for employees to keep their own time records for use in litigation.
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