As Philadelphia Labor Department faces proposed budget cuts, advocates seek more funding for worker’s-rights enforcement

Just a few years after Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration created the Philadelphia Department of Labor, he has proposed shrinking the department’s budget. Advocates for workers are asking instead for the department to get more funding to enforce worker protections.

Kenney’s proposed budget allocates $3.97 million to the department for the fiscal year 2024, which starts in June 2023. That’s about $38,000 less than the budget it received last year, and about $260,000 less than the estimated amount the city will actually spend in fiscal year 2023.

“I was surprised ... and disappointed that the mayor is actually proposing a budget cut to the department,” Councilmember Kendra Brooks said during budget hearings on Tuesday. “To me, it feels like this is a time to set a legacy around worker’s rights, and right now this new office’s success is a part of that.”

Brooks, a councilmember at-large and member of the Working Families Party, noted that Council received letters from several unions representing Philadelphia workers seeking increased funding for the department.

Specifically, the National Domestic Workers Alliance’s Philadelphia chapter, Unite Here Local 274 and AFL-CIO Philadelphia Council requested another $1.2 million for the Office of Worker Protections, which would include $1 million for seven additional staff members and $200,000 for the office’s Community Outreach and Education Fund. AFL-CIO Philadelphia Council had also sent a letter earlier this month that included a request for $350,000 for the department’s Labor Relations and Employee Relations staff.

Candace Chewning, director of the Office of Worker Protections, addressed Brooks’ comments, acknowledging that her staff is too small. She noted that some cities that are smaller than Philadelphia have larger worker-protection staffs. She cited Seattle, which is about half the size of Philly and has 34 full-time staff in its Office of Labor Standards.

“One of the reasons we hear from workers about why they don’t actually file complaints with the office ... is because of how long the process is,” Chewning said. She said the office aims to address all complaints in four to eight months, but sometimes takes much longer.

“With additional staff, we would be able to meet that and provide not only attention to the complaints but also employer requests for compliance support,” she said.

The Department of Labor was formed in 2020, after voters approved its addition to the city charter. Kenney’s Office of Labor had been doing most of the same work, but the change in city law, advocates said at the time, would prevent future mayors from dismantling the department if its work did not align with their priorities.

The department’s functions include creating and implementing the city’s employment policies, serving as a point-of-contact for the labor community, negotiating with city unions, and representing the city in union disputes, and enforcing the city’s worker-protection laws.

Labor organizations, in their letters to Council, pointed to recent labor-rights laws passed by Philadelphia lawmakers, but said those laws are ineffective if the office doesn’t get funding it needs to enforce them.

“We worked closely alongside the OWP to unanimously pass the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, which has been critical to supporting thousands of non unionized workers laboring in private homes,” wrote Nicole Kligerman, Pennsylvania director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. “Without the funding to fully enforce the law, however, domestic workers continue to suffer.”

Rosslyn Wuchinich, president of Unite Here Local 274, wrote that workers without a union are in particular need of the office as an enforcement agency to investigate complaints and make sure employees understand their rights. “The OWP is critical to making sure these laws actually mean something for the workers they are intended to protect,” she wrote.

“The umbrella of these pieces of legislation cannot be understated; they impact thousands of workers on thousands of worksites,” wrote Danny Bauder, president of the AFL-CIO Philadelphia Council. “Their enforcement requires a fully trained staff equipped with the resources equal to the task at hand.”

The Mayor’s Office declined to comment on the department’s budget Tuesday evening.