REGISTRATION IS NOW AVAILABLE – 2019 NAFC National Conference, September 22-24, 2019 – Boston, MA

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

July 2019

Welcome to the 2019 NAFC National Conference!

It is time to register for this year’s 2019 NAFC National Conference to be held on September 22 – 24, 2019, at the Sheraton Boston Hotel in the heart of downtown Boston, Massachusetts. NAFC’s National Conference is attended by several hundred participants from across the nation, including representatives from labor organizations, responsible contractors, fair contracting compliance organizations as well as researchers, academics, attorneys and officials from federal, state and local governments.

PLEASE NOTE THE NEW FORMAT FOR THE 2019 NAFC NATIONAL CONFERENCE – AND REVIEW THE SCHEDULE OF EVENTS BEFORE MAKING YOUR TRAVEL RESERVATIONS

The 2019 NAFC Conference has been extended. We have added additional workshops on Sunday afternoon (Sept. 22nd – the day of arrival) and extended the Conference to include a full day session on Tuesday (Sept. 24th – the final day). Please review the Schedule of Events drop-down menu to ensure that your travel reservations allow you to attend the complete lineup of plenary speakers, panels, workshops and networking opportunities. In addition, please use the Registration & Hotel Reservation drop-down menu to register for the Conference and reserve your hotel. Conference registration and hotel reservations must be made online through NAFC’s 2019 Conference website. Paper Conference registrations and hotel reservations will not be available this year.

The 2019 NAFC National Conference will be the largest and most successful Conference to date. NAFC President Rocco Davis, the Board of Directors and staff have put together a lineup of dynamic speakers and comprehensive workshops to assist you in leveling the playing field in publicly funded construction and promoting responsible and efficient construction at the local, state and federal levels. National experts on construction industry issues will present the latest research and programs which promote the high road construction market, joint apprenticeship plans and pathways for underserved communities and veterans in the construction industry. Leading fair contracting practitioners will describe innovative tools and strategies to ensure enforcement and compliance with the wide variety of laws which regulate public construction, including prevailing wage laws.

Stay tuned for further details and contact NAFC’s Administrator with any questions you may have.

(Conference Details & Registration)

Visit out website at faircontracting.org

2019 NAFC Membership

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

July 2019

NAFC is a labor-management organization comprised of fair contracting organizations, responsible contractors, and labor unions and was founded to promote and support a level playing field in the public construction sector. NAFC provides a forum for those committed to responsible, competitive contracting and offers its members a wide variety of tools to strengthen, defend and enforce the broad array of laws and requirements which regulate public construction.

Join us today by clicking on the membership form below and submit your check for $850.00 for your annual dues.

NAFC 2019 Membership Application

Please make checks payable to:

National Alliance for Fair Contracting or NAFC
905 – 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006

Please be advised that a fee of membership in the National Alliance for Fair Contracting is not deductible for tax purposes under IRC § 6113.

USDOL Wage & Hour Dept. Release New Website for Wage Determinations -Starting Friday, June 14, 2019

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

6-12-19

The U.S. Department of Labor is excited to announce … WDOL.gov will be transitioning to https://beta.SAM.gov, which will become the new website for wage determination data.

Features of the new beta.SAM.gov website include:

  • Search-based structure: Users may search for a variety of information including specific Davis-Bacon Act and McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act wage determinations.
  • Learning Center with tutorial videos, tools, and other information to familiarize users with the new site.
    • Ability to filter and search for content in the Learning Center. Users will find links to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Code of Federal Regulations citations for specific subjects via a Cross Index page for Contract Labor Standards.
    • The site features more FAR Supplements and other acquisition regulations than WDOL.gov.
    • A Transition Quick Start Guide will be available soon.
  • Create an account: By creating a beta.SAM.gov account, users may access certain features of the system only available to account holders. For example, users will have the option to:
    • Save previous searches.
    • Start or modify a Collective Bargaining Agreement.
    • “Follow” specific wage determinations and receive email alerts when changes or modifications are published.
    • Users will determine what to follow and the frequency of email alerts.
    • Timeline and history of changes to wage determinations.

Support for the wage determinations in beta.SAM.gov will continue to be provided by the Federal Service Desk.

Employers can find compliance assistance resources from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division at www.dol.gov/WHD/foremployers.htm. Additional compliance assistance resources and answers to common questions regarding federal labor laws can be found at www.Employer.gov.

(Visit the SAM.gov Website)

USDOL Wage and Hour Division to Host Prevailing Wage Seminars

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

July 2019

Our 2019 seminars will be held in the following locations:

  • Sacramento, CA, July 23rd – 25th
  • Washington, DC, August 13th – 15th
  • Indianapolis, IN, August 27th – 29th

The Wage and Hour Division (WHD) Prevailing Wage Seminars (Prevailing Wage Seminars) are three-day compliance trainings designed for regional stakeholders (unions, private contractors, state agencies, federal agencies and workers). In these seminars, conference participants will learn about the following:

  • The Davis-Bacon Act and McNamara O’Hara Service Contract Act
  • Executive Order 13495 “Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers”
  • Executive Order 13658 “Establishing a Minimum Wage for Contractors”
  • The process of obtaining wage determinations and adding classifications
  • Compliance assistance and enforcement processes
  • The process for appealing wage rates, coverage, and compliance determinations

If you have any questions please email WHD-PWS@dol.gov

(Read More)

Congress has never let the federal minimum wage erode for this long

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

After the longest period in history without an increase, the federal minimum wage today is worth 17% less than 10 years ago – and 31% less than in 1968.

Economic Snapshot
By David Cooper * June 17, 2019

June 16th marks the longest period in history without an increase in the federal minimum wage. The last time Congress passed an increase was in May 2007, when it legislated that the minimum wage be raised to $7.25 per hour on July 24, 2009. Since the minimum wage was first established in 1938, Congress has never let it go unchanged for so long.

When the minimum wage remains unchanged for any length of time, inflation erodes its buying power. As shown in the graphic, when the minimum wage was last raised to $7.25 in July 2009, it had a purchasing power equivalent to $8.70 in today’s dollars. Over the last 10 years, as the minimum wage has remained at $7.25, its purchasing power has declined by 17 percent. For a full-time, year-round minimum wage worker, this represents a loss of over $3,000 in annual earnings. Moreover, since its historical peak in February 1968, the federal minimum wage has lost 31 percent in purchasing power-meaning that full-time, year-round minimum wage workers today have annual earnings worth $6,800 less than what their counterparts earned five decades ago.

A simple way to fix this problem once and for all would be to adopt automatic annual minimum wage adjustment (or “indexing”), as 18 states and the District of Columbia have done. The Raise the Wage Act of 2019 would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2024-boosting wages for nearly 40 million U.S. workers-and establish automatic annual justment of the federal minimum wage. Automatic annual adjustment would ensure that the paychecks of the country’s lowest-paid workers are never again left to erode.

(Read More)

Democrat Senators Come Out Against DOL ‘Joint Employer’ Rule

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Hassan A. Kanu
Posted June 26, 2019, 10:31 AM

  • Presidential contenders oppose rulemaking
  • Blue state attorneys general join opposition; franchise group in support

Six of the seven senators running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 voiced their “strong opposition” to the Labor Department’s proposal to narrow liability for franchised businesses and companies that rely on temps and other contractors. “The proposed interpretation would violate the language and intent of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and weaken the enforcement of wage-and-hour protections on behalf of many of the most vulnerable workers in the country, directly contradicting DOL’s mission,” Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and several other Democratic heavyweights said in a June 25 letter to Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta.

The DOL proposed a new joint employer regulation-or interpretive rule-in April, seeking to narrow the circumstances when multiple companies can be considered “joint employers” of a group of workers. The Obama administration had looked to expand the scope of joint employer liability. The DOL said in April that its new proposal would reduce uncertainty about which businesses are responsible for workers’ employment protections and any associated liability for violating labor laws.

“As the prevalence of contracting, temporary staffing, and franchising arrangements has ballooned throughout the American economy, it is increasingly important that companies that share responsibility for workers are held liable for wage theft, child labor abuses, and other violations of federal wage-and-hour law that too often devastate the financial security of working families,” the senators wrote, noting that the 3-million temp-worker contingent across the country is “disproportionately made up of African American and Latino workers earning significantly less than other groups.

The joint employer issue is a flashpoint for franchised and gig economy companies and worker advocates. The comment period on the joint employer proposal ended June 25. The DOL’s proposal also drew attention from a group of Democratic attorneys general and the largest business association in the franchise sector, the International Franchise Association. The IFA argues that long-accepted practices in franchising shouldn’t be considered evidence of joint liability.

“The Department of Labor has put forward a rule that can add much-needed clarity for franchise businesses,” IFA Senior Vice President of Government Relations Matt Haller said in a June 25 announcement. “An expanded joint employer standard has cost the economy billions and slowed down hiring and job growth-this rule is a major step toward righting that wrong.”

Officials from 18 states including New York, California, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia wrote to Acosta to oppose the rulemaking. “The experiences of many of the undersigned state Attorneys General (“State AGs”) in enforcing labor laws and protecting workers argue strongly against adopting the Proposed Rule,” the prosecutors wrote. “Based on our collective experience, we believe that the Proposed Rule does not adequately reflect today’s workplace relationships, in which growing numbers of businesses are changing organizational and staffing models by outsourcing functions to third” parties.”

The DOL regulation is considered an interpretive rule because Congress hasn’t directly authorized the agency to define joint employment. Critics have suggested the eventual policy will be subject to legal challenges.

The letter from Congress also was signed by Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio); Patty Murray (D-Wash.); Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.); Dick Durbin (D-Ill.); Ben Cardin (D-Md.); Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.); Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.); and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

(See Article)

How to Combat Wage Theft

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Rebecca Koenig, Staff Writer
June 24, 2019, at 10:26 a.m.

AS LOW-INCOME WORKERS know, it’s tough to get by on modest wages. When those wages are stolen through illegal employment practices, it makes life even harder.

Unfortunately, wage theft is a problem low-income workers encounter pretty often. For example, among the roughly 110 people who pass through the doors of the Workers’ Rights Clinic each month in Washington, D.C., many come with valid claims of not having been paid properly, says Allen Cardenas, clinic coordinator.
Wage theft describes a variety of pay violations.

Examples of wage theft include:

  • Not being paid for all hours worked.
  • Not being paid overtime.
  • Not being paid at least the applicable minimum wage.
  • Not being paid at all.
  • Not taking home all earned tips.
  • Not being permitted to take earned breaks.
  • Having pay deducted illegally.
  • Being required to work “off the clock.”

Employers are responsible for following labor laws, but they don’t always comply. Follow these steps to help prevent wage theft and to take action if it occurs to you.

Know your rights.

The first step of combating wage theft is understanding the rights to which you’re entitled as a worker under federal, state and local laws. These include minimum wages, overtime pay, work breaks, reasonable medical and religious accommodations and protections from retaliation, safety hazards and discrimination.

Don’t assume wage theft is accidental.

While a company may occasionally make a bookkeeping error that results in your paycheck being smaller than it should be, most wage theft is not accidental, according to Daniel A. Katz, senior counsel at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee, which hosts the Workers’ Rights Clinic.

“The vast majority of these claims are clearly intentional violations,” he says.

Wage theft is more common in some settings and occupations than others, according to research published by the National Employment Law Project, which advocates for low-wage workers. It happens relatively frequently in textile factories, private households, restaurants, retail stores and warehouses and to people who work in child care, personal services, building services, hospitality and food preparation.

(Read More)

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Are General Contractors Liable For Their Subcontractors’ Actions Or Inactions?

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

JD Supra
June 26, 2019

A general contractor in Southern California found itself on the hook for its subcontractor’s failure to pay wages to its workers, even though the general contractor had no knowledge of it. The case illustrates an important reminder for general contractors. The general contractor was fined close to $600,000 under a 2017 California law, A.B. 1701, which holds general contractors liable for their subcontractor’s failure to pay wages owed to workers.

Holding a general contractor responsible is not new or limited to state law. Under most federal employment laws, a general contractor could be found to be a joint employer with its subcontractor, or a temporary staffing agency, when certain conditions are met. In determining if the general contractor is jointly employing workers with its subcontractors, courts will look at the level of control exercised by the general contractor over these workers, as well as intermingling of operations, common ownership, supervision of work, pooling of employees, sharing of clients or customers, and agreements between the companies.

Unexpected and significant consequences for a general contractor may result from its subcontractor’s noncompliance with the law. For example, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, a general contractor found to be a joint employer could be liable for a subcontractor’s failing to pay wages or overtime and misclassifying a worker as exempt or as an independent contractor, among other things.

In addition, more and more courts are looking at whether general contractors should be held accountable for a subcontractor’s alleged harassing or discriminatory conduct under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

State and federal agencies and workers may go after a general contractor for joint-employment liability when the subcontractor cannot cover the liability on its own or it is no longer operating, and the general contractor has deeper pockets.

Accordingly, to reduce risk, general contractors should consider carefully who they choose to do business with and take steps to ensure that their business partners are compliant with federal and state laws.

(See Article)

Exposing Wage Theft Without Fear: States Must Protect Workers from Retaliation

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

NELP
June 24, 2019

Around the country, workers who speak up about workplace violations often face a significant risk of retaliation by their employer. Yet our laws generally place the burden on workers to come forward and report violations, either through complaints filed with enforcement agencies or through lawsuits filed in state or federal court. Government investigations or audits of employers are relatively rare. Retaliation is therefore one of the most pressing and persistent challenges to effective enforcement of our workplace laws-workers should not fear that their employer will punish them for asserting their rights. Ultimately, any law intending to protect workers’ rights must protect workers from retaliation in order to make that law a reality.

Why Do Workers Experience Retaliation?

  • Workers in the U.S. generally bear the burden of enforcing their own labor protections-it is up to them to come forward to report violations.
  • When a worker comes forward to report a workplace violation, we know that employers often retaliate or threaten to retaliate against the worker.
  • ·Under our current system, workers bear the entire risk of retaliation from their employer when they report violations.

What Does Retaliation Look Like?

  • Retaliation takes many shapes and can be difficult to pinpoint or prove. Employers, for example, may fire a worker, demote a worker, reduce a worker’s hours, change worker’s schedule to a less favorable one, subject a worker to new forms of harassment, unfairly discipline a worker, threaten to report a worker or a worker’s family member to immigration authorities, and much more.

What Does Retaliation Cost Workers?

  • When workers experience retaliation for trying to protect their rights, the costs can quickly escalate from both a financial and emotional standpoint, especially for the countless workers nationwide who live paycheck to paycheck. A worker may experience lost pay, for example, which can quickly lead to missed payments, lower credit scores, eviction, repossession of a car or other property, suspension of a license, inability to pay child support or taxes, attorney’s fees and costs, stress, trauma, and more.

Department of Labor details response to cybersecurity incident (MD)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

From Staff Reports | Jul 8, 2019

BALTIMORE — The Maryland Department of Labor on July 5 began notifying 78,000 customers with details about potential unauthorized activity on two of its database systems.

While some personally identifiable information may have been accessed without authorization, a thorough investigation conducted by the Department has not revealed any misuse of the accessed data.

Earlier this year, at the request of the Maryland Department of Labor, the Maryland Department of Information Technology — the agency overseeing all state information technology functions and policies — initiated an investigation and determined that files stored on the Literacy Works Information System and a legacy unemployment insurance service database were subject to possible unauthorized access through the internet.

Upon notification of the possibility of unauthorized access, Maryland DoIT implemented countermeasures and initiated an investigation. Working with the Department of Labor, Maryland DoIT also notified law enforcement and retained an independent expert to investigate how the information was accessed.

A full review of the department’s protocols and security measures has been completed to prevent future incidents. To date, this investigation has not produced evidence to confirm that any personally identifiable information was downloaded or extracted from Labor servers.

With this investigation now complete, the Department of Labor is contacting the customers who were impacted by the incident and encouraging them to carefully monitor their accounts. Those who have been affected will be offered two years of free credit monitoring through an independent service.

(Read More)