WASHINGTON -- Federal programs developed over the past 50 years for the protection of American workers have been seriously eroded since President Reagan took office, said a report to Congress released Sunday.
The basic laws protecting workers still are in place but, 'Lax administrtion, budgetary cuts and inadequate legislative oversight have undermined the protection the laws offer,' the report said.
'Training opportunities for the unskilled and unemployed have diminished, working conditions have deteriorated, workers' rights have been undercut and the unemployed and the retired have less income security.'
The report on federal policies affecting American workers was submitted to the Joint Economic Committee by Sar Levitan and Isaac Shapiro of the George Washington University Center for Social Policy Studies.
Committee chairman David Obey, D-Wis., said the report indicates the Reagan administration 'has executed a full-scale retreat in virtually every area of government activity affecting the well-being of American workers.'
Not only have workers suffered higher unemployment levels, 'But virtually every program to help the jobless -- from unemployment insurance to retraining and job-search assistance -- has been cut back dramatically,' Obey said.
The report said federal funding of employment and training assistance has dropped from $9.5 billion in 1981 to $5.6 billion in 1986. The percentage of unemployed receiving unemployment insurance fell to 'a historic low' of 34 percent in 1985. After adjusting for inflation, the minimum wage has declined by 26 percent since January 1981 and is now at its lowest real level since 1955 and the enforcement of health and safety regulations has deteriorated.
The report said the decline in the unemployment rate since 1983 does not justify the cutback in federal employment and training programs.
'Even after more than three years of economic growth, the unemployment rate remains high relative to historical standards,' the study said.
The administration 'has pursued some refinements that may have strengthened' the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, but for the most part, 'actions taken by the Reagan administration have undermined OSHA's effectiveness,' the report said. OSHA's record of setting health standards since 1981 'has been dismal' and enforcement of existing standards 'has eroded in recent years.'
The report also was critical of administration efforts to bar discrimination in the workplace, saying that since 1981, 'Federal agencies have downgraded the enforcement of equal employment opportunity policies affecting women and minorities.'
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, for example, 'has been half as successful at achieving settlements and has been twice as willing to reject cases, but its case backlog has risen.'
Administration policies have led to a 'substantial rise' in the backlog of cases handled by the National Labor Relations Board and caused delays in resolving cases.
Those factors 'impair a union's chances to win a representation election and force a worker fired for union activities to bear the costs of unemployment while awaiting an NLRB decision,' the report said.
In recommending corrective action, the report said many of the changes needed 'to restore longstanding federal health and safety protections, equal employment opportunities and the right to bargain collectively can be accomplished through administrative actions that will not affect federal costs.'
Legislation would be needed to raise the minimum wage to 'traditional levels of support' and that would increase costs to employers. 'But it is a mechanism by which the government can assist the working poor without adding to the federal deficit,' the report said.
