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Sonderling Announces the Labor Department's Self-Audit Program Launch, Jul. 24, 2025

July 24, 2025 · U.S. Department of Labor · 0:03:01

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What happened

Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling announced the Department of Labor’s self-audit initiative in a department message released on July 24, 2025. “At the US Department of Labor, we believe everyone should have the chance to comply with the law,” as he opened it. He said the administration has worked to provide compliance assistance that is clear and practical, but that assistance alone is only the first step: the new initiative incentivizes employers, unions, and benefit advisers to take proactive action to voluntarily correct issues and quickly provide relief to impacted employees, as he described it — job creators can identify and correct errors in good faith and work with the department to fix them without facing a formal investigation, as he stated the terms.

Sonderling described the program as spanning the department’s agencies, including, as he named them, the Employee Benefits Security Administration’s two self-correction programs — the Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program and the Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program, the latter offering incentives to late filers including lower penalties — and a new self-audit program from the Mine Safety and Health Administration, among the department’s other agencies.

Why it matters

The self-audit launch is the compliance-first enforcement philosophy of the Sonderling Labor Department stated as policy: voluntary correction in good faith, with relief delivered to affected employees quickly, positioned ahead of formal investigation. It is one of the first department-wide initiatives he announced as Deputy Secretary.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the department-wide self-audit initiative announced July 24, 2025, including the EBSA self-correction programs and the MSHA self-audit launch Sonderling named. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of Labor, “Deputy Secretary Keith Sonderling Announces USDOL Self-Audit Program Launch” (Jul. 24, 2025, embedded above; remarks as delivered by Deputy Secretary Sonderling).