The president plans to nominate Keith Sonderling — a Republican with several years of agency experience — to serve as secretary of labor, according to a Monday social media post.
Sonderling, who was previously deputy secretary, took the helm as acting secretary after Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned in April amid reports of an investigation into potential misconduct.
Previously, Sonderling served in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and as a commissioner for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
In Sonderling’s time at DOL, he has voiced support for employer-friendly regulations and programs that encourage employers to perform self-audits, report employment law violations and take corrective action.
As an EEOC commissioner, Sonderling similarly backed federal agency opinion letters, saying they act as liability shields for employers but also benefit courts, workers and unions.
He also urged employers to perform self-audits before implementing artificial intelligence tools at work. Employers should evaluate algorithms “early and often for biased outcomes and reengineer as appropriate,” Sonderling said in a 2021 American Bar Association conference. He called on EEOC to be a leader in this area and urged attendees to reach out with any requests for guidance.
AI can help eliminate bias from the earliest stages of the hiring process, he said later that year in an op-ed for HR Dive. “I believe that we can — and we must — realize the full potential of AI to enhance human decision-making in full compliance with the law,” he wrote, but said stakeholders must be “vigilant” about the technology’s limitations “and mindful of the legal and ethical obligations that bind us all.”
Shortly after Trump’s announcement, Sonderling said that if confirmed by the Senate, he would look forward to “advancing the President’s agenda on behalf of America’s workers, families, unions, and job creators.” DOL did not provide additional comment by press time.
