Labor pains: Commissioner Thompson’s quest to fix a broken agency
Few people watch smoldering dumpster fires and think, “I’d like to be the person to clean up that mess,” but then again, not everyone is Bruce Thompson.
He spent nearly a decade serving in the Georgia State Senate and held a very safe Republican seat, but in 2022, he made the curious decision to forgo an easy re-election and instead challenge the Georgia Department of Labor’s incumbent Republican commissioner.
The agency was beset with shocking problems, which probably left many people wondering why Thompson chose this path. Against all odds, he was victorious, but winning on Election Day was only one of Thompson’s steps toward fixing a beleaguered department—something taxpayers genuinely deserved.
Before Thompson stepped foot in the Department of Labor as its commissioner, the agency had already been facing numerous scandals. In 2020 and 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its height, the agency was roundly criticized for taking excessive time to issue unemployment benefits.
The department overpaid $84 million in pandemic unemployment benefits and asked recipients to return the funds. Leadership additionally instituted secrecy rules that required “legislators to sign a confidentiality agreement to obtain unemployment information about constituents who ask for help securing benefits,” reported Georgia Public Broadcasting.
In July 2022, even more troubling news came to light. “A federal agent has testified that Georgia labor officials were bribed by an alleged criminal organization accused of subjecting farmworkers to forced labor and degrading living conditions,” according to USA Today, “including housing dozens in a single-room trailer without safe drinking or cooking water.”
Considering these controversies, it was a wonder that Thompson pursued the job, but he felt he had the background to make a difference. He is a former tank commander, businessman and lawmaker who focused on labor issues, including working to reform Georgia’s occupational licensing system, and he quickly found himself being drafted for labor commissioner.
“Some of my colleagues said you have experience turning things around. Why don’t you [run for labor commissioner and fix the agency],” Thompson told me over a call. He wasn’t sure how this would turn out, but he went all in. “Whether this was a stepping stone or the end of my career,” he thought, “let’s go make it something that can really leave an impact.”
Thompson was, of course, successful, and he began chipping away at the agency’s problems. As for his predecessor’s secrecy rules targeting lawmakers, “I put an end to that very quickly,” Thompson replied, and created a portal aimed at assisting legislators who want to help their constituents. His team is also working to create a new unemployment benefits system that will expedite and streamline the process and—should there ever be another global pandemic—can handle a larger volume.
Thompson speaks proudly about fostering a new culture at the labor department and being an accessible commissioner, but it also takes a hands-on approach to prevent gross misbehavior. This is especially true in the wake of the alleged human trafficking case, although oversight of Georgia’s Foreign Labor Certification (FLC) Program has since shifted to the Technical College System of Georgia.
If these issues weren’t challenging enough, Thompson’s team conducted an internal audit and found over $100 million in unremitted funds from the prior administration. They allegedly included, “administrative fees and collected penalties and interest—that should have been turned over to the state treasury, but were instead ‘carefully hidden’ in federal accounts the department held, which were ‘mischaracterized and undetected,’” according to 11 Alive News. Rather than perpetuating this behavior, “We quickly got that over to […] the Treasury,” Thompson said.
Thompson’s tenure at the labor department hasn’t been solely dedicated to addressing previously existing failures. He’s also been proactive. He created a program to help formerly incarcerated individuals re-integrate into society and obtain gainful employment. While there are many triumphs to celebrate, the past couple years haven’t been without tragedy, but Thompson continues to focus on his objective.
“I am fighting stage four pancreatic cancer, and we got serious about setting up a strong leadership team at the Department of Labor and put into place our strategic plan and initiatives and empowered our leaders […] While I am battling cancer and I am still coming to the Department of Labor, our leaders are still leading and we haven’t missed a single beat.”
If the Department of Labor used to be an unmitigated dumpster fire, it seems more like a well-oiled machine today. For that, taxpayers can be thankful.