View Header

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary


For Immediate Release March 18, 1994
                         PERFORMANCE AGREEMENT
                                BETWEEN
                   THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
                           WILLIAM J. CLINTON
                                  AND
                         THE SECRETARY OF LABOR
                            ROBERT B. REICH

I. Introduction

The American people deserve a government that works better and costs less. The departments and agencies of the federal government hold vital keys to improving performance and to restoring the faith of the American people in their government. Many changes will need to take place for this broad goal to be realized. The purpose of performance agreements with senior officials is to establish clarity and consensus about the priorities for departmental management. They are intended to improve the management of the Executive Branch and are not intended to and do not create any legally enforceable rights. From these agreements should flow the program and management priorities of the departments. These agreements represent a beginning, a basis for continuous improvement as we reinvent our government to meet the needs and expectations of the American people.

II. The Department of Labor

Section One: Purpose

This Agreement reflects the goals and priorities that Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich has for the Department of Labor for fiscal year 1994 and supports his commitment to prepare America's workforce and workplaces for the 21st century.

Section Two: Department of Labor's Mission

The problem: Americans are working harder for less and are more anxious about their jobs and their children's futures.

Americans are working harder for less and are more anxious about their jobs and their children's futures than ever before. We can, however, ensure that all Americans will enjoy better living standards by creating a better prepared workforce and supporting high valueadded work organizations. To do this, the Department of Labor has embraced four major departmental strategies to enhance worker preparedness and improve American workplaces.

The creation of a well-prepared workforce begins with "First Jobs" and our plan to prepare all Americans for good jobs at the start of their careers. Likewise, our workforce is strengthened when individual workers possess the skills to move between jobs as increasing globalization and advancing technologies change the way we work. Our second strategy, then, focuses on "New Jobs" and our commitment to ease the transition of Americans from job to job. Our third strategy recognizes that American success in a global economy also requires the development of "Better Jobs," and we will work diligently to create High Performance Workplaces throughout the country and to enhance the enforcement of labor laws that protect workers' rights, safety and health. Finally, we know that the successful creation of First, New and Better Jobs depends on the Department's willingness and ability to reinvent itself into a high performance work organization. Our fourth strategy, therefore, is to reaffirm our commitment to reinvent the Department through a labormanagement partnership with our employee unions.

The following list of Fiscal Year 1994 goals represents the culmination of ideas that have been developed at all levels of the Department of Labor and reflect the Department's internal performance measures. Last June, for example, 150 Department managers, union representatives and field employees attended a leadership conference where many of these ideas were first posed. These ideas were analyzed and sharpened by reinvention teams looking at both agency specific suggestions and ideas that cut across agency lines. In addition, Department of Labor employees contributed over 1,500 Proposals to Reinvent and Improve Department of Labor Effectiveness (PRIDE), some of which have been included in our goals. Together with our employee unions, we have used these ideas to create an agenda for the effective delivery of First Jobs, New Jobs, and Better Jobs to the American workforce and workplace. Once signed, this document will be distributed to every employee of the Department of Labor and will lay the foundation for working performance agreements between the Secretary and his executive staff.

Section Three: Department of Labor Fiscal Year 1994 Goals

  1. First Jobs: Prepare All Americans for Good Jobs

--Initiate School-to-Work: work with Congress to pass legislation; award eight competitive state grants and 15 to 25 competitive local grants; obtain ten corporate enrollments; the first youth will be enrolled for the 1994-95 school year

--Expand Job Corps: open two new centers; train an additional 350 enrollees for a total of 64,000; complete design on nine new sites

--Implement enriched 1994 Summer Program with increased private sector commitment; increase the number of summer job participants who receive education services

--Produce occupation specific Skill Standards in six industries

--Increase registered apprenticeships to 325,000 and increase new registrations of targeted groups by seven percentage points. Targeted groups include youth in registered apprenticeships, women and minorities

2. New Jobs: Ease the Transition of American Workers from Job to Job

--Develop comprehensive worker adjustment strategy for transmittal to the Congress early in 1994; work with the Congress with a goal of passing legislation by July 1994

--Initiate One-Stop Career Centers: work with the Congress to pass legislation; award grants in three to six states

--Participate in the Department's Defense Phasedown Initiative: establish 15 transition centers and provide service to 6,000 employees

--Begin implementing the Department's Profiling Initiative for 100% of unemployment insurance claimants in participating states as part of converting to a reemployment system

3. Better Jobs: Create High Performance American Workplaces

  1. Create High Performance Workplaces

--Establish the Department's Workplace Performance Measurement Initiative by September 30, 1994 and develop discussion guide on high performance workplaces for use by investors and managers

--Encourage the diversity of American workplaces by increasing "glass ceiling" reviews in Fortune 1000 Companies from 19 to 40

--Address changes in the American workplace and respond to recommendations made by the Dunlop Commission

--Create a database of more than 500 best workplace practices and give awards to recognize at least ten companies that have developed high performance workplaces

--Establish an institute to train 40 senior union staff to participate fully as partners with management and to train local union leaders in new forms of labor-management cooperation

--Deliver education programs and provide direct assistance to enable America's 40,000 labor organizations to meet federal reporting and disclosure requirements more easily

B. Enhance Enforcement

--Develop Department of Labor-wide enforcement plan; complete implementation strategy by the end of fiscal year 1994

--Review Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) activities with a view towards reform legislation and implementation of and reforms in fiscal year 1994

--Reassess OSHA inspection practices with a goal towards increasing OSHA inspections and penalties collected by 5%

--Implement OSHA's Regulatory Prioritization System. Promulgate three health and six safety standards in fiscal year 1994

--Issue one new health and two new safety standards in the Mine Safety and Health Administration

--Increase civil penalties assessed for mine safety and health violations

--Increase by 5% the proportion of investigations targeted to low wage industries (such as garment, agricultural and custodial services) and child labor violations

--Increase compliance reviews of employers with a history of deficiencies

C. Provide Benefit Security

--Work with the Congress to pass Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) reform legislation

--Begin preparation for automated processing of Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) Form 5500 and complete preliminary planning in conjunction with the Internal Revenue Service and PBGC

--Encourage private investments that aid the American economy by distributing discussion guides and research results on high performance workplace practices to pension fund investors

--Participate in the implementation of health care reform and the resolution of ERISA issues in the health care area

4. Reinventing the Department of Labor to Help Create First, New,

Better Jobs

  1. Customer Service

--Complete customer survey action plans for all major programs by May 31, 1994

--Institute surveys of dislocated worker customer satisfaction and act on results by the end of fiscal year 1994

--Reduce backlogs in selected case processing systems by at least 25% without reducing quality

--Reduce pending exemptions and requests for interpretation under ERISA by 20%

B. Reinvention/Savings

--Save $5 million in Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA) benefits in fiscal year 1994 through the existing Periodic Roll Management project, and save an additional $4 million in FECA benefits in fiscal year 1994 through the expansion of the project, contingent on funding.

--Work towards accomplishing Department-wide personnel system reform

--Work towards accomplishing Department-wide procurement system reform

--Reduce internal reports by 33% and current internal regulations by 50%

--Reduce Advisory Committees and Independent Boards by one third

--Accomplish 90% of approved reinvention initiatives such as automated time and attendance procedures, paperwork reduction, authority delegations, etc. to support front line Department of Labor employees

--Accomplish all of the above while achieving staff reduction and savings goals in fiscal year 1994 as directed by the Presidential Memorandum dated September 11, 1993

C. Better Information

--Begin Consumer Price Index (CPI) Revision

--Plan Economics Statistics Initiative in fiscal year 1994

--Continue the Department's leadership role in improving the quality and accuracy of financial management information (including removal of qualifications from audited financial statements for fiscal year 1994) and in the effort to expand the use of program performance measures; volunteer to serve as a pilot agency under the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993

--Expand the Women's Bureau's Clearinghouse service to provide answers about workers' rights directly to working women

--Prepare first State of the American Workforce Report

D. Increasing Ethnic and Gender Diversity in the Department of

Labor

--Increase Hispanic representation at all levels

--Increase representation of women and minorities at GS/GM 13 and above

--Increase representation of people with disabilities

E. Make the Department of Labor a High Performance Workplace

--Make the Department of Labor an acknowledged "Reinvention Model"

--Increase training for all Department of Labor employees - to 1.5% of compensation costs; conduct reinvention training for all employees

--Provide each Department of Labor agency in the field with standard computer linkage to the Department's administrative systems

Section Four: Administration

  1. Subsequent Agreements by the Secretary with Assistant Secretaries

The goals and priorities enumerated above will form the basis and focus of subsequent agreements between the Secretary, the Assistant Secretaries, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics and other agency heads.

2. Measurement and Monitoring of Performance

To measure progress against the above objectives, the Secretary is committed to the accomplishment of specific measurable results. Specific measures for Fiscal Year 1994 are described in the text of this agreement and will be elaborated in subsequent agreements within the Department.

To maintain focus and a sense of urgency and to have a real impact on performance, there will be periodic reviews of progress, discussion of difficulties encountered and agreement on appropriate actions. These will be held between the President and/or his designees and Department officials and, with greater frequency, within the Department. Any specific reporting requirements will be developed jointly with the Department.

3. Miscellaneous

This Agreement is intended only to improve the internal management of the Executive Branch and is not intended to and does not create any right, benefit, trust or responsibility, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or equity by a party against the United States, its agencies, its officers, or any person.

4. Term of Agreement

This agreement will remain in effect until modified. It is expected that it will be updated at least annually to reflect significant changes in budget, policy, personnel or other factors that may effect the accomplishment of objectives.

This agreement represents our joint commitment to a Department of Labor that works better and costs less and fulfills our sacred trust to the American people.

 Robert Reich                    William J. Clinton
 Secretary of Labor              President of the United States