Labor committee budget bill calls for $100 million in state spending

Nearly a 33% spending increase from the previous biennium.

That is the proposal contained in a delete-all amendment to HF2755, the omnibus labor and industry finance bill.

The House Labor and Industry Finance and Policy Committee played host to a nonpartisan staff walkthrough and public testimony Tuesday. Member discussion, additional amendments, and committee action is expected Thursday on the bill sponsored by Rep. Michael Nelson (DFL-Brooklyn Park), the committee chair.

The 82-page bill would substantially increase spending for practically every funding area within the committee’s purview, as well as implement a number of regulatory proposals heard throughout the session. Let’s begin our review with the money.

Appropriations

The bill would appropriate $98.5 million in the upcoming biennium, up from $67.3 million doled out two years ago. Major expenditures would include over $13.3 million for the Department of Labor and Industry to uphold labor standards and improve workplace safety in the following ways:

• $4.09 million for wage theft prevention, matching the figure from the previous budget;
• $3.61 million for instituting an ergonomics safety program;
• $3.19 million for prevailing wage enforcement, a 94% increase from last biennium;
• $963,000 for a newly established Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board;
• $544,000 for outreach and enforcement related to updates of the Women’s Economic Security Act;
• $394,000 to carry out the Safe Workplaces for Meat and Poultry Processing Workers Act;
• $326,000 to beef up workplace protections for agricultural and food processing workers;
• $206,000 for enforcement and other duties pertinent to a warehouse worker safety bill; and
• $50,000 for outreach and education regarding contractor training standards at petroleum refineries.

More than $9.5 million would be spent by the department on apprenticeship programs to bolster workforce development, such as:

• $3 million in grants for clean economy jobs;
• $2 million for the labor education advancement grant program to foster the employment of people of color, Indigenous people, and women in apprenticeable trades; and
• $1.2 million in grant monies given to Building Strong Communities, Inc., including $456,000 for the Helmets to Hardhats Minnesota initiative.

Just under $500,000 would also be set aside for a novel regulatory framework of combative sports.

The Workers’ Compensation fund would receive $30.91 million, and the Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals would net $5.14 million. While the court is picking up only an extra 11%, the fund would see an increase of nearly 25% from the last biennium.

The Bureau of Mediation Services would be provided almost $7.5 million, highlighted by $1.5 million for the Public Employment Relations Board, representing an increase from the previous budget by 36.2% and 83.3%, respectively.

Regulatory changes

Several high-profile measures would alter the regulatory landscape in Minnesota, namely:

• updating the Packinghouse Workers Bill of Rights to expand protections for food processing workers and provide those protections to a wider pool of workers;
• aiming to raise wages and working conditions for nursing home employees via the creation of a Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board;
• attempting to improve training and safety standards for third-party contractors employed at Minnesota’s two oil refineries by requiring participation in registered apprenticeship programs;
• strengthening health and safety regulations at meat and poultry processing workplaces with 50 or more employees, largely in response to working conditions experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic; and
• establishing new worker safety requirements in the warehouse industry in the hopes of combatting the high rates of worker injuries seen at Amazon warehouses.

Not found in the bill? Proposals to tackle wage theft in the construction industry; the establishment of rideshare driver protections; and prohibitions on non-compete covenants.

Miscellaneous

Several other noteworthy changes to state labor law are proposed:

• fines for failing to post employees’ rights posters in a workplace would be more than doubled. Willful or repeated violations could go as high as $156,259 per violation, while serious or nonserious violations would max out at $15,625 per violation;
• the State Building Code would be modified to require adult-size changing facilities in newly constructed or substantially remodeled public restrooms;
• the installation of solar panels would be added to the list of contractor “special skills”; and
• an ergonomics program to minimize employee risk of developing or aggravating musculoskeletal disorders would be mandated at all hospitals, outpatient surgical centers, and nursing homes, as well as at all warehouse distribution centers and meatpacking or poultry processing sites with 100 or more workers. A grant program would also be established to support workplaces in making recommended ergonomic improvements;

Reaction

The bill was warmly received by numerous union representatives as well as Labor and Industry Commissioner Nicole Blissenbach.

“[This will] support our economy, improve worker protections, and enable the agency to better meet the needs of the Minnesotans we serve,” she said.

Blissenbach specifically mentioned the department’s appreciation for provisions around prevailing wage compliance, workforce diversity initiatives, and the ergonomics safety program.

Lauryn Schothorst, a policy director with the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, supplied opposition via oral and written testimony to many of the bill’s provisions.

Rep. Joe McDonald (R-Delano) took issue with the last-minute inclusion of the combative sports regulations, noting they run to eight pages and were never previously heard in committee.

Nelson replied that the measure came from the governor’s supplemental budget request and unfortunately came late, but he is happy to continue the discussion at Thursday’s hearing.

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What’s in the bill?

The following are selected bills that have been incorporated in part or in whole into the omnibus labor and industry finance bill:

• HF10 (Lislegard)
• HF23 (Wolgamott)
• HF36 (Greenman)
• HF70 (Hansen)
• HF284 (Norris)
• HF908 (Agbaje)
• HF981 (Hicks)