Fed watchdog wants DOD to have better insight into contractors’ safety records

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Author: Kim Slowey
Published: March 21, 2019 

Dive Brief:

  • The U.S. Government Accountability Office, a congressional “watchdog,” has issued recommendations to the U.S. Department of Labor’s OSHA and the Department of Defense aimed at helping them better track defense contractor safety violations. GAO was tasked with reviewing safety and health records of contractors and how they were handled by DOD, the largest contracting agency in the government, with $320 billion in contracts in 2017.
  • The GAO report noted that OSHA’s inspection data does not include a corporate identification number, which means “website users will likely have difficulty obtaining accurate information on individual companies’ previous violations,” such as whether the violations occurred on defense projects. DOD also may be missing opportunities to consider a company’s safety performance when awarding contracts, it continued, because only a few parts of the agency rate contractors in this category.
  • GAO recommends that OSHA consider requiring a corporate identification number as part of the information it collects during an inspection, and that DOD officials use OSHA’s website to find contractor safety information and consider requiring a safety performance rating for contractors engaging in construction and other risky types of work.

Dive Insight:

  • New regulations requiring a safety record review could have contractors bracing for a legal fight, and it wouldn’t be the first time this has occurred.
  • In 2017, President Donald Trump with congressional backing repealed the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order that former President Barack Obama issued in 2014. The rule would have required that companies bidding on federal contracts of $500,000 or more disclose up to three years of past OSHA and other labor violations. Opponents of the regulations quickly dubbed it the “blacklisting” rule, and industry groups such as the Associated Builders and Contractors of America took the matter to court, claiming that the rule violated contractors’ First Amendment rights and restricted fair and open competition for federal contracts by mandating that firms disclose even unadjudicated allegations of violations.

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Financial Fraud and Wage Theft Continue to Plague Construction Industry

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Cases of fraud and wage violations continue to soil the image of the construction industry during this labor shortage

FEBRUARY 28, 2019

Every week there seems to be yet another item in the news about contractors being charged with fraud, wage theft and more. This week is no different, unfortunately.

…

Meanwhile in Massachusetts, a state that has been under scrutiny for construction wage theft, Attorney General Maura Healy issued 165 civil citations against 66 construction companies in 2018. According to a press release from the Attorney General, restitution in 2018 exceeded $1.47 million for more than 1,030 employees, and the companies were fined more than $1.23 million.

Wage Theft Big Problem in Massachusetts Construction Industry

Violations included:

  • Failure to page proper wages
  • Failure to pay overtime
  • Retaliation
  • Failure to furnish records for inspection
  • Failure to pay prevailing wage
  • failure to submit true and accurate certified payroll records
  • Failure to register and pay apprentices appropriately

“Workers in the construction industry are particularly vulnerable to wage theft from dishonest contractors who cheat their workers,” said AG Healey. “As Massachusetts undergoes a historic construction boom, my office will continue to fight for exploited workers and ensure they are paid the wages they earn.”

(Read More)

Sanders Vows to Ban ‘Disastrous’ Anti-Labor ‘Right-to-Work’ Laws

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

“Treat your workers with the dignity and the respect they deserve,” Sanders said of powerful corporations

Published on Monday, April 08, 2019
by Julia Conley, staff writer

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday told a gathering of union machinists that as president he would keep states from undermining their rights by pushing for a federal ban on so-called “right-to-work” laws.

Calling the rules “disastrous,” Sanders told the International Association of Machinists that he would call on lawmakers to pass the Workplace Democracy Act, a proposal which he has regularly introduced in Congress since 1992 and which he plans to bring to the Senate floor once again in the coming days.

Under “the most significant labor legislation introduced in very, very long time…we will end once and for all the disastrous right-to-work laws in 28 states,” Sanders said to loud applause.

The senator and 2020 presidential candidate also said the law would keep companies from “ruthlessly exploiting their employees by misclassifying them as independent contractors and [denying] them overtime by calling them supervisors”-both common practices by corporations.

“Workers in the construction industry are particularly vulnerable to wage theft from dishonest contractors who cheat their workers,” said AG Healey. “As Massachusetts undergoes a historic construction boom, my office will continue to fight for exploited workers and ensure they are paid the wages they earn.”

Under right-to-work laws, unions are barred from requiring that all workers contribute dues if they benefit from the union’s contract. The laws have been aggressively pushed by Republican governors and lawmakers in recent years, with proponents claiming they protect workers from being forced to join a union.

“The reality is that federal law already makes it illegal to force someone to join a union,” the AFL-CIO says. “The real purpose of right to work laws is to tilt the balance toward big corporations and further rig the system at the expense of working families. These laws make it harder for working people to form unions and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.”

(Read More)

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Labor woes must be addressed to solve California’s housing crisis (CA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Scott Littlehale, Guest Columnist
Published 3:47 p.m. PT – March 5, 2019

If you are concerned about California’s housing affordability crisis, remember these three numbers – 15, 33, and 200,000.

Fifteen is the percentage of total residential project costs consumed by construction labor. The other 85% is the stuff really driving up the cost of your homeland acquisition: Zoning, permitting, environmental compliance and related costs.

Thirty-three (percent) is how much less, on average, residential construction workers earn compared to construction workers who build our commercial facilities and public works.

Put in perspective: The last time California produced housing quantities similar to what Governor Newsom is calling for today – the 1970s – there was no wage gap between residential and non-residential construction work.

Two hundred thousand is the minimum number of new residential construction workers that California needs – under current levels of labor productivity – in order to build enough new housing units to keep our affordability crisis from getting worse.

Obviously, if you want to build more housing units, the last number is the most concerning. Construction is one of the nation’s most dangerous occupations. The industry’s jobs are amongst the most economically volatile – often the first to go during cyclical downturns and recession. Employers must be willing to offset these risks with higher compensation to attract new workers.

But most are not.

Recent research shows that the cost of living adjusted compensation for California construction workers ranks now 46th among US states. One in six construction workers faces some form of wage theft. Residential construction workers earn 24% less per year than other jobs on average, and more than half do not get health insurance at work.

Complicating matters for the housing industry is that there are no longer any shortcuts available to meet its labor force needs. The nation is near full employment, net immigration flows have been negative since 2005 and California’s population of young men without a college degree is shrinking.

(Read More)

Bill aims to better classify California construction workers (CA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

AUTHOR – Kim Slowey
PUBLISHED – April 2, 2019

Dive Brief:

  • California legislators are considering a new test for contractors to use when deciding if construction workers qualify as independent contractors, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, making the misclassification of workers more difficult.
  • The proposed state law would require employers to use the “ABC” method of determining whether a worker is a legitimate independent contractor or an employee. Under ABC, which was upheld by the California Supreme Court in April 2018, a worker can be classified as an independent contractor if he or she is free from the control and direction of the employer as it relates to the performance of the work; performs work that is normally outside the scope of work of the hiring contractor; and is usually engaged in the same type of work as part of the business. Through the legislation, legislators are seeking to codify the court’s decision.
  • A University of California Berkeley Labor Center study found that construction workers were one of three occupations in California routinely misclassified and not paid employee benefits due to them. Independent contractors, according to UC Berkeley, make up about 26% of the state’s construction workforce.

Dive Insight: 

Three other states – New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut – also use the ABC test in their wage and hour laws, according to a report from the National Employment Law Project, and about half of all states apply it in some form in their unemployment laws. Ten states use it in relation to their labor laws for high-risk sectors like construction.
There are other tests contractors can use to determine whether a worker is an independent contractor, including one from the Internal Revenue Service that considers how the worker is paid, if the relationship with the hiring business is permanent, and whether the individual will achieve a profit or loss as part of his or her operations, among other factors.  
There are still some contractors, however, that leapfrog over the responsibility to classify workers correctly. They often count on not having to pay for things like workers’ compensation coverage, health insurance, federal and payroll taxes, figuring those savings into their bids.

(Read More)

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‘Put The Exploiters In Jail’: Wage Theft Bill Cracks Down On Employers (CO)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Shaun Boyd
April 2, 2019 at 11:59 pm

DENVER (CBS4) – State lawmakers want to crack down on bosses who don’t pay up. Wage theft is a big problem in Colorado.

The Colorado Fiscal Institute says more than 500,000 Colorado workers are victims of wage theft each year, losing an estimated $750 million. And right now, there’s little prosecutors can do about it.

Under current state law, wage theft is a misdemeanor, no matter if it’s $100 or $100,000. Representatives Jonathan Singer and Meg Froelich plan to change that.

“When a hard day’s work is put in, an honest day’s pay is deserved,” said Singer.

He and Froelich have introduced a bill that would align wage theft with other thefts. If it’s over $2,000, it would be a felony.

“Wage theft is perpetrated against the most vulnerable workers,” said Froelich.

It is especially common in the construction and food service industries. Jim Gleason, a carpenter, says he was a victim.

“We were getting paid every week until about the 4th or 5th week and we were informed that there wasn’t enough money to make payroll so if we didn’t mind waiting a week, we’d pay for two weeks the next week,” he said. “Well, the next week came and there was no check. It’s time we put the exploiters in jail and got the penalties that they deserve and give the wages to the people who deserve them.”

The Colorado District Attorney’s Council agrees.

(Read More)

Colorado bill set to make wage theft a felony (CO)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

AUTHOR- Kim Slowey
PUBLISHED – April 8, 2019

Dive Brief:

  • The Colorado General Assembly’s House Judiciary Committee approved a proposed wage theft bill that would make intentional underpayment of certain wages a criminal offense. 
  • In Colorado it is a misdemeanor to willfully short employees on their paychecks, but the new measure would make it a felony theft to intentionally underpay them by $2,000 or more. The bill includes migratory and foreign workers under the definition of employee.
  • One of the bill’s stated intentions is to provide an additional vehicle for state law enforcement to fight labor trafficking by recognizing labor as a thing of value that is subject to theft. According to the General Assembly, labor trafficking each year costs Colorado workers hundreds of millions of dollars and the loss of tens of millions of dollars to the state.  

Dive Insight: According to the Colorado Fiscal Institute, more than 500,0000 workers in the state – many of them in the construction industry – lose $750 million a year because of wage theft. The institute’s analysis shows that the most common methods employers use to short employees on their pay are:

  • Nonpayment, which includes late payments and not paying employees what they’ve earned.
  • Underpayment.
  • Misclassification of employees as independent contractors in order to avoid having to pay benefits.  
  • Unauthorized payroll deductions for expenses like transportation, materials and tools.

There has been a push by some states and cities to address wage theft and misclassification of workers as independent contractors. In California, lawmakers are considering codifying a state Supreme Court ruling that sets the parameters of which workers qualify as independent contractors. The “ABC” test asks whether the person claiming to be an independent contractor is free from the control and direction of the employer; performs work that the hiring employer doesn’t typically do; and engages in the work as part of a business.

(Read More)

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Wage theft bill heads to governor’s desk (ID)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

NATHAN BROWN
3-13-2019

A bill to give employees a year rather than six months to file claims for partial payment of wages is headed to the governor’s desk.

The bill, which was sponsored by House Minority Leader Rep. Mat Erpelding, D-Boise, passed the Senate unanimously Tuesday. It had already passed the House, also without opposition.

Sen. Grant Burgoyne, D-Boise, who sponsored the bill in that chamber, said people often discover they were partially shorted on pay when filing their taxes. With the current statute of limitations, that means if they file a complaint with the Department of Labor they can only recover part of the year’s pay they may be owed.

“I believe this legislation corrects a problem that affects too many wage earners, and there is no known opposition to this bill,” Burgoyne said.

(Read More)

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Guest opinion: Idahoans should get what they’re paid for (ID)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Rep. Mat Erpelding and Jason Hudson
3-5-2019

Working Idahoans believe in receiving a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work. If you agree to do a job for an agreed upon wage, that money should show up in your paycheck. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way. For reasons innocent and sinister, hundreds of (if not more) Idahoans get shorted every year. As leaders who represent hard-working Idahoans, we don’t think that’s right. For the first time in a long time, your elected leaders can do something about it.

Every year, hundreds of working Idahoans file “wage theft” claims with the state Department of Labor. They seek to recover wages they were promised but never paid. This is their right under state law. The problem is, they can only recover unpaid wages for six months. If they’ve been shorted on payday for a full year, too bad.

House Bill 113 would allow workers to recover up to one-year of the money they worked for, earned, but were never paid. It’s a modest step toward ensuring an honest payday for working Idahoans. The legislation passed through the House unanimously and is heading to the Senate floor. We are hopeful our elected Senators vote to support our hardworking men and women who deserve – and could use – every cent they’ve worked for.

Chances are you know someone who has gotten shorted in their pay envelope. The workers affected by wage theft run the full spectrum of trades and professions – from constructions workers, to retail employees, food service and the healthcare industry. Most victims are blue collar workers who lose hundreds and even thousands of dollars over the course of a year. Those dollars add up quickly for someone who is trying to support a family, put food on the table and make rent every month. Giving those people the tools to recover the wages they’ve earned is not just the fair thing to do, it’s vital to their well-being and the security of their families.

…

Rep. Mat Erpelding is the House Democratic Leader and Jason Hudson works with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations

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Illinois lawmakers again vote to criminalize local right-to-work measures (IL)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

POSTED 12:27 PM, MARCH 14, 2019
BY WQAD DIGITAL TEAM

SPRINGFIELD (Illinois News Network) – Illinois lawmakers have resurrected and are moving ahead with legislation that would make creating local right-to-work zones at the municipal level a criminal offense.

While reporters in the Capitol building were peppering Gov. J.B. Pritzker with questions about his newly-unveiled progressive tax rates, state Senators voted to send a measure to the House that would make it illegal for local governments to create right-to-work zones in their jurisdictions. Such zones allow employees to refuse union membership and still be employed.

Sponsor Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, said the bill will support economic development, protect the quality of essential services and confirm a commitment to a highly-trained workforce.

“Local right-to-work zones have no place in the state of Illinois,” he said. “The regulation of collective bargaining should be the responsibility of state government.”

Some Republicans objected to the bill. They said the state shouldn’t take away local control.

“We ought to allow communities to make their own decision,” said state Sen. Jim Oberweis, R-Sugar Grove.

The bill, which is similar to one Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed in 2017, says any local official who supports a right-to-work zone will be charged with a Class A misdemeanor. That carries a sentence of up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $5,000.

The bill passed with bipartisan support and now sits in the House to be heard.

It would only affect private-sector workers because a U.S. Supreme Court decision last summer prohibited public workers from being required to pay into a union as a condition of employment.

(See Article)