The
Oklahoma Department of Labor was created by the Oklahoma Constitution in 1907.
In August of that year, delegates from the Twin-Territorial Federation of Labor, the
State Farmers' Union and the Railroad Brotherhoods met in Shawnee, Oklahoma, to formulate
a list of demands for the upcoming constitutional convention. One demand
called for the establishment of a State Labor Department.
Consequently,
when the new state constitution was ratified by the delegates to the
constitutional convention in 1907, the Oklahoma Department of Labor was created.
Since its inception, the department has functioned continuously under many different commissioners and governors.
The
first commissioner, Charles A. Daugherty served two four-year terms from 1907 to
1915. At that time the Labor Department was located in Guthrie, as were all
state agencies. The original staff consisted of five people: a commissioner, an
assistant commissioner, a state factory inspector, a superintendent of the State
Free Employment Bureau and a stenographer.
Today
the Department of Labor has a staff of about 100, with approximately 80 people
at the main office in Oklahoma City, and approximately 20 people in the Tulsa
office. Several individuals operate within defined territories away from the two
primary offices.
The
Commissioner of Labor is responsible for the enforcement of those labor laws
that promote fairness and equity in the workforce, including state wage laws,
workers' compensation compliance, state OSHA laws for public employers, asbestos
compliance, child labor laws and various other duties. The office of the
Commissioner of Labor has been both appointive and elective at various times in
our state's history.
Brenda Reneau, was first elected in 1994 and took
office in January 1995. She was elected to a second term in 1998 and won
re-election to an unprecedented third term in 2002.
