The Warehouse Worker Protection Act establishes new federal standards for large employers regarding performance quotas, mandatory paid breaks, data transparency, and workplace safety, while strengthening NLRA protections against retaliatory metrics.
Donald Norcross
Representative
NJ-1
The Warehouse Worker Protection Act establishes new federal standards to increase transparency and fairness for warehouse workers at large companies by mandating disclosure of performance quotas and monitoring data. It guarantees mandatory paid rest breaks, strengthens protections against using quotas to suppress organizing efforts, and introduces new federal ergonomics and safety standards under OSHA. The bill creates a new Department of Labor office to enforce these provisions and invalidates mandatory pre-dispute arbitration for related claims.
Warehouse Worker Protection Act Mandates Paid Breaks, Bans Quotas That Block Bathroom Use, and Boosts Safety Enforcement
The newly proposed Warehouse Worker Protection Act is a massive overhaul of labor rules for large distribution centers, targeting the high-pressure, data-driven environment of modern logistics. This legislation sets up a brand new office within the Department of Labor (DOL) to enforce its rules and fundamentally changes how employers must communicate performance targets, or “quotas,” to their workers. If you work in a warehouse, this bill is about to make your job much more transparent and, frankly, safer.
The End of Secret Quotas and Constant Surveillance
For covered employees—those working at large warehouse facilities (employing 200+ people nationally) and subject to a quota—the biggest change is transparency (SEC. 102). Employers must now provide a written breakdown of every quota, detailing exactly how it’s calculated and what happens if you miss it. Crucially, they must also disclose precisely what "employee work speed data" they are collecting, how they collect it (including any surveillance technology), and who gets to see it. If your employer changes the quota or the tracking method, you get a written notice two business days before the change takes effect. This means no more guessing why you were disciplined; if an adverse action is taken based on a quota, the employer must give you the data showing your failure in a readable format.
Protecting Your Breaks and Your Bladder
This bill directly addresses one of the most common and dangerous complaints in the warehouse sector: quotas that force workers to skip necessary breaks. The law specifically prohibits employers from setting quotas that would prevent you from taking legally required meal or rest breaks, following safety procedures, or even using the bathroom (including reasonable travel time to and from the restroom) (SEC. 102). In a major win for basic worker welfare, the Act mandates that covered employers must provide at least one 15-minute rest break, paid at the regular rate, for every four hours worked. This provision ensures that breaks are not only allowed but are mandatory and compensated, putting an end to the unofficial practice of working through breaks just to hit the numbers.
Cracking Down on Safety and Injury Delays
Beyond quotas, the Act significantly beefs up workplace safety enforcement via OSHA (Title III). Within three years, the Secretary of Labor must establish a new standard requiring employers to proactively identify and control ergonomic hazards—the repetitive motions that cause common injuries like carpal tunnel and back pain (SEC. 301). Furthermore, the bill mandates a new rule ensuring that if you get hurt or sick on the job, you get immediate first aid and referral to a medical professional without delay; employers must also arrange for occupational medicine consultation services (SEC. 302). If an employer is cited for serious safety violations, they can no longer simply contest the citation to delay fixing the dangerous condition; they must fix it immediately unless they get a special, hard-to-obtain stay from the Review Commission (SEC. 303).
Enforcement Gets Serious: Money and Lawsuits
To ensure compliance, the penalties are substantial. Violations of the quota rules carry a penalty of $10,000 to $25,000 per violation, and repeated or willful violations can cost the employer up to $769,870 per violation (SEC. 103). The bill also introduces mandatory investigations by the DOL if a facility’s injury rate is 1.5 times the industry average or if they receive a certain volume of credible complaints. Crucially for workers, the Act invalidates any pre-dispute agreement that forces arbitration or waives the right to join group action (class action lawsuits) for these specific Section 102 violations, restoring the ability of workers to seek justice collectively (SEC. 103). This means employers can’t force you into a private, individual dispute process before a violation even occurs.
What This Means for Employers
For large employers (200+ employees), this bill means a massive compliance lift. They must audit and potentially overhaul their entire performance tracking and disciplinary systems to meet the new documentation and transparency requirements (SEC. 102). The new rules also make it an unfair labor practice under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to set a quota that significantly discourages workers from using their rights to organize or bargain collectively (SEC. 201). If an employer imposes a quota within 90 days of an employee exercising their NLRA rights, it’s automatically presumed to be illegal retaliation, shifting the burden of proof squarely onto the employer.