The Department of Labor has begun a long-overdue campaign to protect workers’ rights, a core part of its job that was sorely neglected in the fiercely antiregulatory Bush era. The campaign, “We Can Help,” uses public-service announcements, a Web site and a phone hot line to encourage workers — particularly those in construction, janitorial fields, hotels, foodWe hope this opens a concerted effort by Hilda Solis, the labor secretary, to energize her department’s somnolent bureaucracy. Workers need the protection.

Last fall, a comprehensive investigation uncovered rampant abuses of low-wage workers in factories, stores, construction sites, offices, warehouses and private homes. The study, released by the Center for Urban Economic Development, the National Employment Law Project and the U.C.L.A. Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, surveyed more than 4,000 workers in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. services and home health care — to report employer abuses. It also adds 250 investigators, a one-third increase, to the department’s wage and hour division. (click on link to read full story)