IWLA, along with the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, led an industrywide letter requesting to meet with Jessica Looman, the Acting Administrator of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD), to discuss the agency’s recently announced Warehouse and Logistics Worker Initiative.

In a press release, the DOL claims the initiative is designed to protect industry workers and ensure they are guaranteed their full wages, workplace rights, and time off as afforded by federal law. DOL plans to target the warehouse and logistics industry for employee misclassification issues and use “vigorous enforcement” to increase compliance and reduce violations that the agency claims is denying workers their wages and legal protections.

Eighteen trade associations representing hundreds of employer organizations and companies in the warehouse and logistics industry signed the letter to Acting Administrator Looman. The associations reiterated the essential services the warehousing industry has provided throughout the pandemic and strongly disagreed with DOL’s assertion that employers took advantage of their employees during this time. The signees requested a meeting with the Acting Administrator to discuss the rationale and data used to support the targeted initiative and called on the agency to publicly release information on employee denied benefits.

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