With Thomas E. Perez now confirmed as head of the Labor Department, the agency is expected to unleash a flurry of new regulations that have been bottled up for months — a prospect that has business leaders worried and labor advocates cheering.
Some long-awaited rules would help boost employment for veterans and the disabled, increase wages for home health care workers and set new limits for workplace exposure to silica dust.
Other, more controversial rules and actions could help labor unions in organizing campaigns and let union officials take part in safety inspections at nonunion companies.
“The general view of the business community is that there will be an activist, enforcement agenda,” said Michael Lotito, a San Francisco lawyer who represents employers in labor disputes. “That means there are going to be more lawsuits and the regulatory agenda is going to be alive and well.”
In many cases, the pending rules have languished for two years or more, stalled by election-year politics and the delay in installing Mr. Perez as labor secretary. The Senate confirmed Mr. Perez last month on a party-line 54-46 vote, part of a deal in which Republicans agreed to end stalling tactics over several of President Obama’s nominees.
The Labor Department already has dramatically increased enforcement of safety, wage and hour laws. Former Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis bluntly declared there was “a new sheriff in town” when she took over the department in 2009.
But Mr. Perez is expected to take things further based on his track record at the Justice Department. He played a leading role in challenging voter ID laws in Texas and South Carolina and was particularly aggressive in bringing housing discrimination cases. As labor secretary in Maryland, Mr. Perez was known for actively going after companies that misclassified workers as independent contractors to avoid paying minimum wage and overtime.
“American workers have an advocate in the Labor Department who will protect and defend workers’ rights — from collective bargaining to workplace safety to retirement security,” said Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Labor Department spokesman Carl Fillichio declined to comment on specific rules. He referred to the White House’s regulatory agenda, which lists several key rules poised for release in the months ahead.
One rule triggering perhaps the strongest opposition in the business community would require employers to disclose the attorneys and consultants they hire to advise them during union-organizing drives, even if the consultants have no direct contact with workers.
If the rule is adopted, unions would know whether a company has hired what they refer to as “union-busting” firms and how much those firms are being paid to offer advice. Employers believe union leaders could use such information to embarrass company managers as they try to persuade workers to back the unions.
The rule-making triggered more than 7,000 comments and vigorous opposition from the American Bar Association, which says it could “seriously undermine both the confidential client-lawyer relationship and the employers’ fundamental right to counsel.”
Other rules expected to be finalized in the coming months would:
• Require most companies with federal contracts to set a goal of having disabled workers make up 7 percent of their workforce.
• Strengthen requirements that federal contractors take affirmative action to hire and promote veterans and require those companies to set benchmarks.
• Extend minimum wage and overtime pay rules to more than 2 million home health care workers now exempt.
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