The Department of Labor is prohibiting its worker protection agencies from issuing press releases announcing when they issue citations and sanction employers, according to Bloomberg Law.
The DOL policy targets the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Mine Safety and Health Administration, and the Wage and Hour Division.
“As a matter of Department policy, in general, enforcement agencies should not issue news releases before achieving a successful outcome,” DOL Deputy Secretary Patrick Pizzella said in the directive to six division heads, with copies sent to Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia, as well as the department’s top litigator and its public affairs chief.
The directive follows a DOL decision to stop releasing OSHA citations—documents offering specific details of workplace infractions—upon request unless a Freedom of Information Act request was made.
Labor Department spokeswoman Megan Sweeney said the memo is part of an effort to take a “more thoughtful and deliberative approach” to inform the public about bad actors.
OSHA does continue to allow public access to its online enforcement database that lists every inspection and violation issued by the agency.
OSHA released its last press releases about issuing citations against a single employer on Sept. 11. Prior to that, OSHA had issued about 95 press releases in 2020 and more than 200 in 2019.
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