Readers will recall our January post concerning the U.S. Labor Department's announced intention to "to collect information about employment experiences and workers' knowledge of basic employment laws and rules so as to better understand employees' experience with worker misclassification." As we said then, this is likely to be a precursor to a renewed "Right to Know" initiative.

USDOL did not publish the actual proposed survey along with its January 11 Federal Register entry. On January 14, we requested a copy from the official to whom USDOL directed that these requests be sent (link to reproduction below). As of this writing, 38 days later, and after appreciably more than half of the comment period has elapsed, we have received neither a copy nor any other response.

The end of the comment period is March 12, 2013, 21 days from now. As matters stand, one may reasonably conclude that the public has had no adequate, fully-informed opportunity to evaluate the proposed survey or to formulate and submit substantive comments.

We are led to wonder whether our experience is representative of the public's at-large. If you requested a copy of the proposed information collection also, please respond to our poll to let us know whether you received one.

Request For Proposed Information Collection.pdf (62.35 kb)