Executive Order 13496: Reflective Paper on Employee Rights & Impact

This paper provides an overview and analysis of Executive Order 13496, which focuses on employee rights under federal labor laws. It discusses the motivations behind President Obama's decision to sign the order, its potential positive and negative impacts on American citizens, and a perspective opposing the law from the viewpoint of the Attorney General of Texas. The analysis includes the order's implications for unionization, job satisfaction, and potential job losses, referencing various studies and legal perspectives to support the arguments. The paper concludes that while the order aims to empower employees, it may also lead to unintended negative consequences, making its overall impact debatable.

Running head: REFLECTIVE PAPER ON EXECUTIVE ORDER
REFLECTIVE PAPER ON EXECUTIVE ORDER
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1REFLECTIVE PAPER ON EXECUTIVE ORDER
Abstract
The aim of the paper is to discuss the executive order 13496 signed by President Obama. This
law repeals the order signed by President Bush. The motivation behind signing this law was
to provide grater autonomy to the employees in organizing unions and resisting the coercion
of the employers. However, this pro-labor executive order like it may not create job
satisfaction for the employees as it promises. Studies have shown that participation in Union
have led to loss in 1 per cent of the employees.

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Introduction to paper
This paper examines the executive order 13496 that is Notification of Employee
Rights Under the Federal Laws. The paper provides the overview of the law, the motivation
of President Obama in signing the law and its impact on the American citizens, my views on
the positive and negative impact of the executive order and finally my rationale behind
opposing the law as an Attorney General of Texas.
Overview of the Executive Order
Executive order number 13496 entitled Notification of Employee Rights Under
Federal Labor Laws enshrines that the federal contractors along with the subcontractors
whose employees are subsumed under the National Labor Relations Act are required to post a
notice to the concerned employees about the rights accorded by the federal labor laws (Chu &
Garvey, 2014). This also includes rights enshrined under the National Labor Relations Act. It
was mentioned that the Secretary of Labor would guarantee the form, size and content. It was
further stated that the contractor should comply with the provisions of the Secretary’s notice
that are connected with rules, customs and orders given by the Secretary of Labor (Harris &
Krueger, 2015). In case, there are failures to post the notice there will be penalties in the form
of suspension, contract cancellation, ineligibility and termination in acquisition of federal
contracts. The Executive Order guarantees the Secretary, the exemption to apply the
requirements in case it does not serve the purpose. In the context of USA, this order had
another implication. It revoked President Bush’s Executive Order 13201 that made it
compulsory for the employees should be given notice that were not supposed to participate in
a union or contribute to the agency fees for the union expenditures.

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The Executive Order and include an explanation of why the President made it and
signed it as an Executive Order
According to this executive order, the federal government contract or subcontract
have the obligation for a business to concede with the substances offering the obligations.
The motivation for signing this executive order for the President was that business need to
learn about the obligations initially in a government audit that would lead to the consequence
of the financial costs. Employees have continued to function at the discretion of the
employers until the mid-1930s (Hirsch, 2017). It was only with the provision of the Labor
Law that the employees enjoyed the right to bargain and organize themselves into unions.
According to Lee & Mas (2012), the Obama government has been passionate and committed
towards the cause of employee rights since his term as a President. Initially, the rights of the
labor through the labor agenda were sidelined with the aim that the President could
concentrate on issues pertaining to economic reforms and health.
Agreement for the Executive Order
I agree with this labor reform as it has explicit benefits of the Employee Free choice
Act and limits the opportunities and coercion practice by the employers in the workplace. A
study conducted by the Cornell University found that employees who were involved in the
National Labor Relations Board had 46 per cent of them felt the pressure from the
management to resist the uprising of the union especially during the period of lection (Fiedler
& Aeschleman, 2010).

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If I was an advisor to the President what kind of advice would you give him about how
the American people would react to this Executive Order – what things should the
President consider – i.e. pros and cons – before signing this into law? Address how the
American people will react positively and why and how they will react negatively and
why?
If I were the advisor of the President, I would assess both the positive and the
negative impact of the pro-labor laws in the context of America before making the decision.
The positive impact of the law would be that it would provide greater autonomy to the
employees. They would have information in organizing the more readily available because of
the EO 13496 and would find it easier to organize under the National Labor Relations Act
(Acharya, Baghai & Subramanian, 2013). This would further prevent the dent in union
membership, therefore contribute in rebuilding the middle-class of America. One negative
impact of the law is the illusion of job satisfaction as posited by the law. Studies have shown
that job satisfaction of the union members are high during the initial phase but tend to
dwindle during the later phases.
If you were the Attorney General of the State of Texas, would you challenge this
Executive Order in federal court? Why or why not? There are always citizens asking
the AG to do so – if you were the AG what would you do and why?
If I was the attorney General of Texas I would have challenged the executive order on
the grounds of its claim of employee satisfaction. Studies have shown that non-union workers
have greater job satisfaction than the union workers. They are contended in the domains of
the immediate supervisor, working conditions, communications and senior leadership.
Another predicted disadvantage of this law is that t will lead to the loss of the jobs for more
than 60, 000 employees (Estlund, 2013). Studies have shown that the participation in union

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lead to the loss of 1 per cent of employees (Langbein, 2014). The law can lead to arbitrary
call for strikes during any incidence of disagreement with the employer.
Conclusion
The Executive Order 13496 repeals the Bush government order that has mentioned
that the contracts and subcontracts of the governments should include a clauseand the
contractors and subcontractors would need to post a notice. The new law provides the
provision to the employees to organize union. This pro-labor law is believed to improve the
job satisfaction of the employees. However, there are negative impacts as it may lead to
arbitrary call for strikes during the slightest disagreement. Studies have shown that contrary
to the popular view that union membership would lead to improvement in job satisfaction, it
was found that it has led to loss in jobs. Therefore, as an attorney general of Texas, I would
oppose the law.

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References
Acharya, V. V., Baghai, R. P., & Subramanian, K. V. (2013). Labor laws and innovation. The
Journal of Law and Economics, 56(4), 997-1037.
Chu, V.S. and Garvey, T., 2014. Executive orders: Issuance, modification, and revocation.
Estlund, C. (2013). Citizens of the Corporation? Workplace Democracy in a Post-Union Era.
Fiedler, A. M., & Aeschleman, M. A. (2010). LABOR REFORM THROUGH EXECUTIVE
ORDERS AND EFCA: THE IMPACT ON WORKERS TODAY. The Association on
Employment Practices and Principles (AEPP), 99.
Harris, S. D., & Krueger, A. B. (2015). A Proposal for Modernizing Labor Laws for Twenty-
First-Century Work: The" Independent Worker". Hamilton Project, Brookings.
Hirsch, B. T. (2017). What do unions do for economic performance?. In What do unions
do? (pp. 201-245). Routledge.
Langbein, L. (2014). Public program evaluation: A statistical guide. Routledge.
Lee, D. S., & Mas, A. (2012). Long-run impacts of unions on firms: New evidence from
financial markets, 1961–1999. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 127(1), 333-378.