Labor Dept.'s Office of Apprenticeship Training and Employer Labor Services
(OATELS) Unlawfully Instructs Staff to Destroy Assessment Records Used
to Evaluate Apprenticeship Programs
WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Edward C. Sullivan, President of the 3-
million member Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, today
demanded that Labor Secretary Elaine Chao rescind the instructions given to
her staff within the Office of Apprenticeship Training and Employer Labor
Services (OATELS) to destroy official records concerning quality assessments
of open-shop apprenticeship programs.
"It appears that rather than setting higher standards and tougher
monitoring of these failing programs, the Labor Department may have decided
it's easier to destroy the records that evaluate them so future requests to
see them will be thwarted. This is US DOL's Freedom FROM information policy.
It is unethical and unlawful and must be stopped. Construction families, our
industry, and American taxpayers may be cheated by this destruction of public
records."
At a May 2004 national staff meeting in Las Vegas, OATELS management
presented a Power Point presentation instructing staff to "DESTROY AFTER USE!"
the forms used to evaluate apprenticeship program quality. These forms have
been mandated as the national form to be used by agency staff to evaluate
program quality since BAT Circular 92-02 dated December 20, 1991.
Sullivan said, "That such an order to destroy records might be given is
shocking and disgraceful. This is especially so when, only a few months
prior, the Building and Construction Trades Department had obtained under the
Freedom of Information Act copies of these sorts of records, and then relied
upon them in filing a rulemaking petition alleging that the agency doesn't
adequately police apprenticeship program quality."
The Federal Records Act bars agencies from destroying program records
unless those records having been scheduled for destruction on schedules
approved by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). 44 USC
Sections 3303, 3314. This mandate is further supported by 18 USC Section 2071,
which provides for criminal penalties and forfeiture of public office of
anyone who "willfully and unlawfully . . . destroys . . . any record, . . .
paper, document or other thing, filed or deposited . . . in any public
office. . . ."
Sullivan informed Secretary Chao that the Building Trades Department
contacted both NARA and Labor Department staff to determine whether these
apprenticeship quality records are on USDOL's record-destruction schedules on
file with the NARA. Both staffs told the Building Trades Department that
these records were not on such schedules.
"Therefore, you are required by law to take immediate action to cease
USDOL's destruction of these records. We expect you will immediately notify
all OATELS staff to not destroy these records, and to recreate any records
already destroyed." noted Sullivan. The law further requires by 44 USC 3106
that Secretary Chao notify the National Archivist of this situation.
Further criminal penalties are provided by 18 USC Section 2071 against
persons who attempt to persuade others to destroy records with the intent to
prevent them from being available for use in an official proceeding. [18 USC
section 1512(b)] The Building Trades Department believes that the on-going
GAO investigation and the Petition for Rulemaking submitted by the Building
Trades Department, both of which directly deal with the performance of
apprenticeship programs, qualify as official proceedings. Sullivan further
stated in his letter to Chao, "We urge that you support a criminal
investigation into the person or persons who ordered this act."
Sullivan asked that Secretary Chao advise the Building Trades Department
immediately of what actions she has taken to undo this incredible action by
OATELS management, which hides the failures of many open-shop apprenticeship
programs. Sullivan also contacted Senators Edward M. Kennedy and Patricia
Murray, who had both called for a GAO investigation into the failing
apprenticeship programs being licensed by the DOL; to John Carlin, National
Archivist; and to Comptroller General David M. Walker of the Government
Accountability Office to alert them to this troubling situation.
Additional information and research data available on-line at the Building
& Construction Trades website: http://www.bctd.org
Contact:
Helen Corbett, Communications Director
978-774-0492
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SOURCE Building & Construction Trades Department
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Related links:
http://www.bctd.org
CONTACT:
Helen Corbett, Communications Director of
Building & Construction Trades Department, +1-978-774-0492
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