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Washington — A federal judge has denied a motion, filed by a group of labor unions, to stop the U.S. DOGE Service from accessing nonpublic Department of Labor information and data.
On Feb. 7, Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled the AFL-CIO and others lacked standing.
“(An) organization must point to a particular member and establish she would have standing if she were a plaintiff herself,” Bates writes. “When seeking preliminary relief, this requires a submission on the record showing at least one particular member is substantially likely to suffer an injury at the hands of the defendant. … It’s not enough that three of plaintiffs’ general counsels submitted declarations that plaintiffs’ members will be harmed.”
However, Bates stated the court “harbors concerns about the defendants’ alleged conduct.”
According to multiple reports, he also told the government’s attorneys during the Feb. 7 hearing that they were asking him to have “a great deal of confidence in people who, according to public reports, are very young, who have never been in the federal government, who have never had any training with respect to the hands of confidential information.
“[You] are asking me to just put absolute confidence in the fact that nothing will happen.”
According to the unions, OSHA is among the agencies that possess sensitive data, including whistleblower information. Others: the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Wage and Hour Division and the Federal Employees Compensation Act Claims Administration.
In a Feb. 7 press release, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler says the decision is “a setback, but not a defeat.”
She continued: “The AFL-CIO, our affiliated unions, partners and allies will provide further evidence of standing and renew our efforts to block DOGE from accessing sensitive data at DOL and through our government, continuing the fight for transparency, accountability and the protection of the fundamental rights generations of workers fought to enact.”
Rep. Scott sends letter to GAO about U.S. DOGE Service
In a Feb. 6 letter, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), ranking member of the House Education and Workforce Committee, calls on the Government Accountability Office to review:
- The security of information technology systems at DOL and other cabinet departments.
- The intervention into those systems by USDS.
- The legality of those interventions.
- The “potential consequences for children and vulnerable workers.”
“Moreover,” Scott writes, “it is my understanding that DOGE has demanded access to all ITO systems at the Department of Labor. … At stake are the integrity of investigations into workplace health, mine safety and child labor violations, including the identity of witnesses and workers who file complaints; the personal privacy of workers and families who receive medical and financial support from the black lung program and other workers’ compensation programs; the confidentiality of whistleblowers under dozens of whistleblower protection laws; the trustworthiness of market-moving Bureau of Labor Statistics data; and confidential business information of countless companies, exposure of which could upend the nation’s economy.”
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Original article published by Safety+Health an NSC publication