Companies with 100 or more employees that may consider layoffs must provide at least 60 days' notice of potential job losses.
That's the law under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
But the Labor Department as run by President Barack Obama's administration seems to have decided it is more important to get the boss re-elected than to give workers a heads-up that their futures are uncertain.
Officials there have decided that federal contractors do not have to give the required notice to their employees of potential layoffs that could begin on Jan. 2 if scheduled government spending cuts occur. You see, the notices issued for that reason could be handed to tens of thousands of men and women just days before the November election.
Rather, Labor Department officials say the notices will not be required because job losses from federal spending cuts are "speculative and unforeseeable."
But so, in a way, are any layoffs faced by workers and most others not involved in government contracts.
The last thing President Obama wants is for tens of thousands of voters to be told just before the election that they may lose their jobs because of failures in government. The Labor Department's decision, then, is one more example of a White House willing to stoop to any low to keep Barack Obama in office.