Val Hoyle

Longstanding mismanagement at the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries has weakened its enforcement of workplace protections and civil rights laws, according to an audit released Thursday by the Secretary of State’s Office.

The result is that workers and employers often face long delays for resolutions of complaints and employers who are violating Oregon labor laws can continue to do so unchecked, the Secretary of State’s Office said in a statement. The agency noted that for Oregonians who cannot hire a lawyer, filing a labor complaint might be their only recourse.

Leaders at the labor bureau have struggled to address its most pressing issues due to inadequate funding and unclear policies, the audit found. For example, when the agency tried to eliminate a massive backlog of wage and hour violation claims, the backlog of investigations only worsened.

Starting during the pandemic, the agency stopped conducting federally mandated compliance reviews of apprenticeship programs, auditors found. In addition, outdated technology and a lack of staffing have left agency employees feeling stretched thin and unable to efficiently manage claims of workplace violations.

Many of these management gaps and unclear policies at the agency seem to have started or worsened under the leadership of U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle, a Democrat from Eugene, who served as Labor Commissioner between 2019 and 2023, the audit indicates.

“This isn’t about pointing fingers or placing blame,” Secretary of State Tobias Read said in a statement. “But the agency must do better, starting with fixing management mistakes that make it harder for the agency to enforce Oregon’s worker protections.”

Since entering office in 2023, Labor Commissioner Christina Stephenson has repeatedly warned lawmakers about the agency’s vague policies and backlog of claims in various divisions. Last year, she said the agency would begin dismissing wage claims from workers who earn more than $52,710 in an effort to eliminate a massive backlog of complaints.

Earlier this year, lawmakers allocated nearly $30 million to the Labor Bureau to hire additional staff and tackle the backlog of complaints.

In August, auditors found that 2,500 wage and hour claims and complaints had not been reviewed by any staff and another 2,084 were waiting to be assigned to an investigator. At the time, the division that investigates civil rights complaints had a backlog of 3,277 intake forms that had not been reviewed.

The backlogs are hidden from most Oregonians, because the agency does not publish the data, auditors noted.

When Hoyle departed the office in 2023 to enter Congress, she did not create any “transition plan or other documents that would help the new administration adjust to their new roles and responsibilities,” the audit found.

In a statement Thursday, Hoyle said she fought for more funding to combat chronic understaffing while leading the bureau. Hoyle said her office secured a 28% increase in the agency’s base budget for salaries, created a human resources position focused on updating policies and made it easier to file claims online.

“I welcome this audit as it is something I also wanted, and quite frankly, it’s long overdue,” Hoyle said. “I do think that the agency and the public would have been better served to have an audit that tracked a longer time period with more data and perspectives, but I’m heartened that the current administration is focused on building on those investments and modernization.”

Auditors recommended ten strategies to improve the agency’s performance. Those recommendations include: monitor and publicly report backlog data, reduce the workload of employees with multiple roles and establish detailed policies for specific programs and the agency as a whole.

“Money alone will not fix BOLI’s problems,” the audit states. “Many of its challenges stem from years of neglect and mismanagement. The most basic of organizational tools — policies and procedures — were either outdated or nonexistent.”

In a letter responding to the audit, Stephenson agreed with the recommendations and provided specific timelines to implement each solution. However, Stephenson blamed many of the problems on the state underfunding her agency. She stated that many of the issues listed in the audit have previously been identified by her office but cannot be addressed without more money and staff.

“Unfortunately, many of the deficits identified are a direct reflection of the fact that the leaders of this agency have been laboring in an environment of extreme scarcity,” she wrote. “While Oregonians absolutely deserve the Bureau to be able to meet the entirety of the need in an efficient, accurate manner, this cannot happen without the requisite staff and tools to carry out that work.”