Advocates worry that Parker’s labor budget will hamper investigations into workplace violations

In a year when the city of Philadelphia is negotiating contracts with its major municipal workers unions, and under pressure from worker advocates to increase enforcement of worker protections, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s budget has proposed no funding increase for the city’s labor department.

With regard to forthcoming contract negotiations with city workers, administration leaders noted in a budget hearing on Tuesday that the city already reached one-year contract extensions with the police and fire and sheriff’s departments, rather than negotiating longer-term agreements.

“We are very hopeful that we can sign maybe one or two more one-year extensions with our municipal workforce,” chief Deputy Mayor Sinceré Harris said. Contracts set to expire this year include those for AFSCME District Council 33 and AFSCME District Council 47, which together have about 15,000 members.

The Parker administration proposed a $4.71 million budget for the four-year old Department of Labor. That’s a slight decrease from the $4.77 million budgeted for the current year, though total spending for the department this fiscal year is expected to surpass $5.1 million.

Department leaders said the excess is attributable to two one-time expenses last year: large payouts for longtime employees who left, and arbitration fees. The severance cost was $162,580 and the arbitration cost $256,000.

Meanwhile, organizations that represent nonunionized workers are pushing for additional funds to support worker-protections investigations and enforcement. Several City Council members similarly pressed the administration on its proposed flat spending for worker protections.

“The Office of Worker Protections budget saw nearly 45% increase in complaints year over year,” said Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke. “Does it make sense to hold [back] this department’s budget given that significant need?”

A coalition of worker-focused groups, including National Domestic Workers Alliance, Philly Black Worker Project, and Restaurant Opportunities Center of Pennsylvania, and AFL-CIO Philadelphia Council, which represents local labor unions, wants the labor department’s Office of Worker Protections to get $2.6 million to itself for the next fiscal year. They want the office to triple its staff and provide additional resources, such as a mental health fund for workers who don’t have access to health-care coverage.

The plans to rein in spending would not cut staffing levels — Parker’s proposal includes money to add three labor relations positions and two more staff positions for labor policy and compliance, which includes the Office of Worker Protections.

Councilmember Kendra Brooks pressed Parker’s administration about the overall decrease in funding for the department, given that its total expenses this year were over $5 million, asking how it would affect investigations of worker complaints. “Will workers have to wait even longer? And what services will your department stop providing to these Philadelphia workers?” Brooks asked.

“We are not making any cuts,” Harris responded. “We are making sure that all of the Department of Labor still has the same number of … full-time employees so that they can do that critical work and in protecting against wage theft.”

A year ago, then-Mayor Jim Kenney’s final proposed budget had set aside less than $4 million for the labor department, but the final budget had an additional $800,000.

Labor Department director Perritti DiVirgilio, who took on that role earlier this month, estimated that about three-quarters of that additional funding went to the Office of Worker Protections. The office enforces city labor laws, investigating complaints related to wage theft, violations against Philadelphia’s Fair Workweek law, and paid sick leave violations.

Last year was the office’s best yet in recovering money for workers. The $328,000 recovered was more than double what the office got for workers in 2022, and more than 15 times its recoveries in 2018.

The majority of that money came from Fair Workweek and paid sick leave cases, though wage theft complaints are the most commonly filed.

Despite that accomplishment, worker advocates point to other city governments that provide greater staffing resources to worker protections, like Seattle, Denver, and San Francisco.

“Our staffing level for that particular office is among the lowest in the country,” Councilmember Jeffery Young said. “So how do you intend to essentially cut down on the complaint time?”

Labor Department chief of staff Manny Citron acknowledged that more than half of complaints take more than three months to address, and that “needs more attention and more work.” He said filling vacancies in the Office of Worker Protections is part of that, adding that the department director signed four job-offer letters to worker-protections candidates just yesterday.