Patrick names head of labor department

BOSTON – Gov. Deval L. Patrick will appoint Rachel Kaprielian, the current registrar of the Mass. Registry of Motor Vehicles, as secretary of the Mass. Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
In the role, she will oversee the state’s five labor and workforce agencies: the Departments of Unemployment Assistance, Career Services, Labor Standards, Industrial Accidents, and Labor Relations, as well as the quasi-public agency Commonwealth Corporation.
Patrick appointed Kaprielian as registrar of the RMV in 2008. Prior to that, Kaprielian represented Watertown and parts of Cambridge for 14 years as a state representative.
Patrick said in a news release last week that Kaprielian brings “expertise and experience needed to serve the commonwealth’s workers, job seekers and employers.” As a state representative, she has advocated consumer-friendly policies, job-training initiative, pension reform and municipal and regional organizational reforms, the governor said.
According to the news release, current Secretary Joanne F. Goldstein is leaving the post to accept a job at Northeastern University as an associate vice president.
Patrick commended Goldstein for her leadership in addressing the workforce needs of businesses, providing both labor protections and safe working conditions for workers, and advocating for fair wages. She had served in the role since 2010 and chaired the Governor’s Joint Task Force on the Underground Economy and Employee Misclassification. •