The White House on Friday launched Worker.gov, which explains Federal workforce protections.
The platform guides employees through processes if they’ve had wages stolen, been injured on the job, been discriminated against, or been retaliated against for gathering to seek better wages or conditions at work. The tool leads employees to the right agency or statute that covers their complaint.
The website includes information from the Department of Labor, Department of Justice, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the National Labor Relations Board.
“We provided the platform, but you own this thing,” President Obama said. “The deal is I will work with you around the ideas that you identify. And we’ll work together. And hopefully this will be the start of reversing some trends–both economic and cultural–that have been around way too long.”
The platform was initially built to support construction workers, day laborers, office workers, nail salon workers, and restaurant workers, but will expand over time to support a broader range of fields. The site has a menu where users can select those specific occupations to learn their rights and issues pertaining to that field. The website is available in beta form.
Tom Perez, secretary of Labor, held five regional summits this year to discuss how workers and unions are creating positive change in the workplace and to gather information that would be the most useful on the website.
The platform discusses the right to be treated equally, the right to engage with others in order to improve wages and working conditions, the right to a safe and healthy work environment, and the right to be paid.
