Inhofe: Obama Administration 'Doesn't Want All These Pink Slips Going Out 5 Days Before Election'

cnsnnews ^ | 7/31/12 | Susan Jones

[Evil Slayer]

(CNSNews.com) - President Obama is trying to prevent thousands of layoff notices from going out a few days before the November election, Sen. Jame Inhofe (R-Okla.) said on Tuesday.

Obama's Labor Department on Monday issued "guidance" to the states, telling them that a federal law requiring advance notice of mass layoffs does not apply to the layoffs that may occur in January as a result of automatic budget cuts known as "sequestration."

Inhofe, appearing on Fox & Friends Tuesday morning, said President Obama, through his Labor Department, "is trying to intimidate businesses, companies, corporations -- not just defense contractors -- into not issuing the pink slips," which are required by federal law 60 days before mass layoffs or plant closings.

"(T)he president doesn't really want all these pink slips going out five days before the election," Inhofe said.

He noted that if the automatic budget cuts kick in on Jan. 2 -- as they will if Congress can't reach a deficit-reduction agreement -- layoff notices would have to go out no later than Nov. 2. The general election is on Nov. 6.

Under the WARN Act -- The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act -- companies with more than 100 employees must give 60 days' notice if there is to be a mass layoff during any 30-day period for 500 or more employees (or for 50-499 employees if they make up at least 33% of the employer's active workforce).

But in guidance issued on Monday, Assistant Labor Secretary Jane Oates said never mind about those pink slips:

"Questions have recently been raised as to whether the WARN Act requires Federal contractors...whose contracts may be terminated or reduced in the event of sequestration on January 2, 2013, to provide WARN Act notices 60 days before that date to their workers

[Truth29]

Once again, the law is whatever the Obama Regime says it is and only when they say it is.

[butterdezillion]

Exactly.

Somebody tell me: Have we ever had a President within whose 4 years in office a budget has never been enacted?

Has Congress ever taken a vacation from that Constitutional duty during a President’s entire term of office?

[Sgt_Schultze]

This administration has certainly written the book on selective prosecution and non enforcement of laws. Any bets on whether a future Romney administration will follow the new template and decide to not enforce mileage requirements on new cars, or issue fines on polluters, or fail to staff civil rights boards or the Depts of Ed and EPA?

[muawiyah]

The WARN ACT is one of those Democrat things ~ passed to solve a problem that didn't exist.

Interesting to see it get dumped on their heads.

Means that the House Republicans have more up their sleeves than some Conservatives believe.

[muawiyah]

Betcha anything Joan Oates is a liar. Best for the affected companies to put those notices out anyway because the Obots will still be able to prosecute you AFTER January 2, 2013 if you didn’t comply.

[silverleaf]

The folks who will be withing 60 days of losing their Jobs certain;y deserve to know so they can be prepared

For obama to try to delay this for personal political gain is despicable..

this from a putz who never had to make a payroll or worry about his next paycheck, with an angry arrogant wife wearing $7,000 jackets to visit the Queen

[familyop]

Big layoffs coming in the not-so-private sector (government-linked business). Get it done. Start fresh.

[pepsionice]

Let me lay out two consequences which the government hasn’t grasped yet. If you don’t send out the warning notices, and come up in mid-December with termination notes for 2 January...a group of ten guys can come up and note they weren’t given sixty days notice, and some federal judge will terminate the termination notice. There would have to be a whole new termination notice sent out, and probably not be effective until mid-Feb at earliest. Civil case out of this? Yeah...you can find Poindexter and Poindexter Legal Associates, and sue the government incompetence.

The second consequence? If you cook up some rigged up deal on how to pick forty employees out of four hundred to lay-off...you can expect the union guys to get involved, and probably another civil court deal. My guess is that for every ten folks you lay off from the GS side....at least six will be re-hired within six months because of a court order. Congress will sit there and then angrily threaten to fire a vast number of managers because they were stupid in how they carried out a stupid congressional order.

Frankly, this all makes the government look like fools in the end. You have at least fourteen percent unemployment in the national capital region by March of 2013....with guys declaring bankruptcy by October of 2013, and houses being handed back to the banks in the DC area. If the President did win re-election....he’d in a huge mess for 2014, 2015, and 2016 as he tries to help the nation recover from his own made-up screw-up.

If you wrote this as a script for a movie....no one would believe it.

[airborne]

Let me be the first to say -

"BUSH'S FAULT ! ! !"

[Myrddin]

I'm a DoD contractor. I'm already forced to work 900 miles from home for the past 3 years because Obama cut funding to the contracts I was working from my home office. This sequestration may trash the current engagement as well. Let the notices fly. Let everyone in the line of fire know who is eating their lunch just days before the election. Frankly, it probably won't make much difference as DoD contractors tend to be more conservative. Obama isn't hurting his voting base.

[what's up]

Frankly, it probably won't make much difference as DoD contractors tend to be more conservative. Obama isn't hurting his voting base.

The contractors themselves are conservative but many of the employees getting laid off are not.

Not to mention the local businesses in the area which will be hurt by decreased business when the laid off employees stop spending.

[Popman]

People....Obama is our Potentate...not POTUS

He is above the law...

[Myrddin]

I'm working in San Diego. It's expensive to live on the economy. If I lose my coverage, I'll pack up immediately and head back to my home in Idaho. That will reduce the burn rate on my resources while I track down alternative work. That also immediately removes the extra drain of CA income tax. My company tracks hours in the zip code where I work them. My leave hours are always taken in Idaho. If I have work that I can knock out at the house in Idaho, those hours get tallied there as well. I have to file state income tax in two states. My project manager ends up filing in CA, NE and CO because of the places he has to be.