Some 1,460 law students and professors expressed their opposition to the nomination of Andrew Puzder as Labor Secretary through a letter signed by them recently. The letter discussed why Mr. Puzder does not qualify for the position.
The letter was furnished to Senate Committees such as on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. It gives particular reasons about their opposition to the nomination. Puzder's primary experience in the labor field seems to break the rules according to them.
The fast-food executive was picked by Donald Trump last December 2016. And now his nomination gained adverse reaction from these future lawyers and professors. This was not the first time the nomination was opposed by concerned people but also members of the faculty and students from different schools opposed it previously, as reported by Bloomberg BNA.
Kathryn Rubino from Above the Law posted some parts of the letter about those oppositions. It discusses what contempt for the rules of the agency Mr. Puzder might run when he is already in the position. His former experience as CEO of CKE Restaurants showed a lot of breaches of various laws that could speak for the possibility that he might do the same as the Labor Secretary.
According to the letter, dozens of companies' directly-owned and franchise restaurants by Mr. Puzder have violated wage and hour laws as have been found by regulators. It also violated occupational health and safety laws. A sixty percent labor law violations were found from the Department of Labor investigations of CKE restaurants since 2009.
Mr. Puzder was also accused of not allowing his workers to have meal breaks and rest. This was included among the multiple class-action lawsuits CKE was accused such as wage theft, altering time records, and placing caps on manager pay while requiring the workers to work unpaid hours. Because of these, law students and professors opposed his nomination. "We do not see how working people can trust Puzder to look out for them now in enforcing labor laws", they said in the letter.
Not only labor law violations were noted to be violated by Puzder. He had also questionable record on women in the workplace. The opposing law students and professors said these could posit as disqualifying issues that would prevent Mr. Puzder from carrying out his duties. His confirmation hearing is set on Thursday.
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