On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Labor rescinded the 2016 persuader rule.

The persuader rule that President Obama’s Department of Labor issued greatly expanded the reporting requirements of employers. Under this 2016 rule, employers were forced to report to the government communications between their lawyers and themselves on union organizing efforts. Employers were also still required to report communications between the employers’ lawyers and employees on union organizing efforts.

This rule would have greatly weakened the relationship between employers and their attorneys. In addition, employees would not have heard all of the benefits and negatives associated with unionization.

The persuader rule, however, never went into effect because the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a preliminary injunction, stopping the rule from going into effect while the case was being decided. U.S. Judge Samuel Cummings of the Court issued a permanent injunction on November 16, 2016.

According to Judge Cummings, the Department of Labor did not have the legal authority to issue this rule. In addition, the court found that the rule violated attorney-client privilege.

Nathan Mehrens, the Office of Policy’s Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of Labor explained why the Department issued the rescission in a press release:

“For decades, the Department enforced an easy-to-understand regulation: Personal interactions with employees done by employers’ consultants triggered reporting obligations, but advice between a client and attorney did not. By rescinding this Rule, the Department stands up for the rights of Americans to ask a question of their attorney without mandated disclosure to the government.”

The Center for Worker Freedom commends the Department of Labor for this rescission and all of its outstanding work under the Trump Administration. The Department of Labor has advanced worker freedom tremendously by rolling back regulations that hurt workers and reduced the number of available jobs.