Sponsors (22)
Official title: To establish protections for warehouse workers, and for other purposes.
Introduced August 5, 2025 by Donald Norcross · Last progress August 5, 2025
The bill significantly strengthens worker privacy, anti‑retaliation, and health/safety protections and enforcement access for warehouse employees, but it does so at the cost of higher compliance, litigation, and operational burdens—especially for small, multi‑state, and rural employers, with potential transparency trade-offs in federal oversight.
Covered warehouse employees will get clear written quota descriptions, access to their work-speed data, and limits on collection/retention, reducing intrusive surveillance and increasing transparency about expectations.
Workers who engage in protected activity (organizing, complaints) will benefit from stronger anti-retaliation rules, including a 90‑day rebuttable presumption that quota-based adverse actions are unlawful, making it easier to obtain remedies.
Covered employees gain multiple health and safety protections — guaranteed rest breaks, required ergonomic hazard identification and controls, faster first-aid/referral procedures, and access to occupational medicine — likely reducing injuries and improving care.
Small and mid-size employers face substantial new compliance and administrative costs (recordkeeping, rapid data production, training, signage, ergonomic programs, onsite medical services) that may be passed to consumers or reduce wages/hours.
Employers will face greater litigation and liability exposure—blocking predispute arbitration and waivers, easing class certification, plus FTC enforcement and higher penalties—likely increasing defense costs and unpredictable damages.
Broad coverage definitions and thresholds (e.g., 200+ employees including affiliates) combined with non‑preemption of stronger state/local laws can ensnare many firms and create a patchwork of differing rules, raising multi-state compliance burdens.
Based on analysis of 11 sections of legislative text.
Creates a DOL Fairness & Transparency Office, bans certain quotas and predispute arbitration for covered warehouse claims, and requires new OSHA ergonomic and first-aid/occupational medicine standards.
Creates a new Fairness and Transparency Office inside the Department of Labor, strengthens legal protections and enforcement tools for warehouse workers, bans certain employer quota and arbitration practices, and directs OSHA to write new ergonomic and first-aid/occupational medicine standards for covered employers. The bill also amends the NLRA to treat quota-based discipline as an unfair labor practice, expands agency coordination and complaint processes, and authorizes appropriations for implementation through 2035.