When a president-elect writes a letter to the Labor Secretary accusing her of not doing her job, that’s a pretty good clue that enforcement is going to get a lot tougher under the administration of Barack Obama.

Obama fired off the letter in July, and in it he told Secretary Elaine Chao that he had “serious concern” that the DOL wasn’t enforcing protections for workers.

The letter accompanied a Government Accountability Office report alleging DOL did an inadequate job of investigating complaints by workers who charged their employers with failure to follow the Fair Labor Standards Act, cheating on overtime, or failing to pay the minimum wage. Then came another report citing inconsistencies in how the department handled worker complaints in general. DOL officials have disputed both reports, calling them inaccurate.

And still another report last year by the department’s inspector general criticized its own safety inspectors for failing to conduct an adequate number of inspections, particularly at mining-industry facilities. 

Throw into the mix Obama’s campaign promise to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act — which is administered by the DOL — and you can expect the agency to be at the top of the budget list next year.

Tags: dol, Elaine Chao, Family and Medical Leave Act, obama