Brian Merchant

"Thomas Shedd, the 28 year-old ex-Tesla engineer and DOGE official installed as the head of the federal government’s Technology Transformation Services, has quietly —and perhaps illegally —become the Chief Information Officer at the Department of Labor, too. 


"Now he’s in charge of the US labor department’s technology.

"'It’s probably illegal and it’s definitely terrible for both organizations,' a federal employee who works at one of them tells me.

"The move has alarming implications. For one thing, it appears to violate federal law dictating the number of positions an official can hold. 

"More concerningly, it puts Shedd in a position to influence how the government administers federal labor law —laws enshrined to protect workers from wage theft, discrimination and wrongful termination —at a time when his agency is eliminating jobs en masse. And, not to mention sometimes doing so mistakenly and illegally, while rolling out dubious workplace AI and automation programs." 

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