In order to better protect American families and address practises that hurt workers in the “gig economy” and other labour markets, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) signed an information sharing agreement today. This formalised their partnership. Employer monitoring and debt created by employers are two topics that need rapid attention. The agreement will support the identification and abolition of financial practises that affect workers as well as the improved enforcement of federal labour and consumer financial protection legislation. With encouraging transparency and information sharing between the CFPB and NLRB, today’s information sharing agreement is a step towards ensuring that employees are more thoroughly safeguarded from dishonest businesses, debt traps, and illegal labour practises.
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The protection of American employees in the labour and financial markets is a shared goal of the CFPB and NLRB. The agreement between the CFPB and NLRB recognises the overlap of potentially detrimental conduct that may put hazards to consumers and workers under federal consumer financial protection law and the National Labor Relations Act and promotes the two agencies’ collaboration on relevant initiatives. To the advantage of both families and ethical firms, the CFPB has placed a special emphasis on reviving competition in the consumer financial markets. When workers are forced into employment or have their personal information collected for the advantage of specific firms, anti-competitive financial practises can hurt consumers and legitimate enterprises.
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The National Labor Relations Board, an independent federal organisation founded in 1935, shields workers from unfair labour practises and defends their freedom to band together, with or without a union, to better pay, benefits, and working conditions in the private sector. Each year, the NLRB oversees hundreds of workplace elections and looks into thousands of complaints of unfair labour practises. The CFPB started initiatives last year to find out more about the risks consumers face from their employment. The CFPB’s Request for Information from the public and its roundtable discussion with worker organisations and labour unions both made it clear that consumers face financial risks every day they go to work. For instance:
- Employer-driven debt: Taking a job might also mean entering a financial trap. Businesses warned the CFPB that employees would increasingly be forced to take on debt for employer-mandated education or tools that they might not need, that might be more costly or hazardous than what they could get on the open market. Workers are frequently burdened with heavy debt as a result, which prevents them from switching employment in search of higher pay or better working conditions. This debt may be due to employers or pursued by third-party debt collectors.
- Employer monitoring and selling personal data: Employees might not be aware that technologies used by employers to monitor things like employee productivity might continue to monitor them after hours, and the corporations that hold the tools may sell employee data to banks, insurers, and other employers. The Fair Credit Reporting Act and other consumer financial protection regulations may be broken by some of the monitoring businesses’ operations.
“Many workers discover that getting a job can mean piling up debt instead of making a living,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “Information sharing with the National Labor Relations Board will support our efforts to end debt traps that stop workers from leaving one job for another.” “Employers’ practices and use of artificial intelligence tools can chill workers from exercising their labor rights,” said NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. “As our economy, industries, and workplaces continue to change, we are excited to work with CFPB to strengthen our whole-of-government approach and ensure that employers obey the law and workers are able to fully and freely exercise their rights without interference or adverse consequences.”
