150 Civil Rights and Workers’ Rights Groups Urge Congress to Protect Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces

WASHINGTON – Today, 150 national, state, and local civil rights and workers’ rights groups sent a letter strongly opposing the use of the Congressional Review Act to repeal the regulations implementing the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order signed by President Obama.

“We ask you to stand with American workers and oppose any attempts to roll back the protections that stem from the Executive Order on Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces. They provide strong protections against the federal government contracting with employers that routinely violate workplace health and safety protections, engage in age, disability, race, and sex discrimination, withhold wages, or commit other labor violations. These protections should not be repealed,” the letter states.

“All employers should follow the law, especially those who receive taxpayer funding through federal contracts,” said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a signatory to the letter. “The Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order took necessary and long overdue steps forward to ensure workers are treated fairly – we should not be going backwards.”

The full letter is available here.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference, visit www.civilrights.org.