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USDOL Wage and Hour Division to Host Prevailing Wage Seminars

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on
May 2019

 

Our 2019 seminars will be held in the following locations:
  • Austin, TX, June 18th – 20th: Register Here
  • Anchorage, AK, June 25th – 27th: Register Here
  • Sacramento, CA, July 23rd – 25th
  • Washington, DC, August 13th – 15th
  • Indianapolis, IN, August 27th – 29th
Please note these locations may change.
If you would like to receive email updates about our seminars, please sign up for our mailing list here. (In the category “Wage and Hour” select “WHD – Prevailing Wage Seminar Announcements”)
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
Prevailing Wage Seminars for 2018 were held in the following cities:
  • Jacksonville, FL – April 10-12th, 2018
  • San Diego, CA – May 22-24th, 2018
  • Kansas City, MO – June 12-14th, 2018
  • Hato Rey, Puerto Rico – August 27-28th, 2018
If you have any questions please email WHD-PWS@dol.gov
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My Turn: The conservative case for a prevailing wage (NH)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By TROY MERNER
Published: 5/8/2019 12:10:20 AM

There’s an old saying that the best social welfare program is a “good-paying job with excellent benefits,” and I couldn’t possibly agree more. While most elected officials agree with this idea in principle, we often disagree on the best path forward. New Hampshire has some of the best-trained and hardest workers in the country, and it’s high time we treated them accordingly. This is why I’m asking my fellow Republicans to support Senate Bill 271 and finally establish a prevailing wage in New Hampshire.

Prevailing wage law states that contractors must offer competitive wages and benefits on taxpayer-funded projects. This accomplishes two things: First, it ensures that public projects enjoy a quality of workmanship that cut-rate contractors cannot provide, saving taxpayers millions of dollars over the long term. Second, it affords locally trained New Hampshire workers the ability to work close to home. Many of our best-trained workers are forced to seek employment in neighboring states where prevailing wage ensures that pay is higher, while local construction jobs go to out-of-state contractors offering a lower quality of service.

A recent study by economists at the Keystone Research Center, a nonpartisan economic policy organization, concluded that establishing a prevailing wage in New Hampshire would add up to 4,000 local jobs to our economy because it would diminish out-of-state contractors’ ability to undercut our local workforce. This law would also provide health coverage to approximately 2,500 construction workers – reducing the number of our hard-working men and women who rely on the government for assistance. The same study concluded that passing a prevailing wage would increase economic activity by $680 million in New Hampshire and raise up to $17 million in new state and local tax revenue.

Passing a prevailing wage also establishes an enforcement protocol to ensure that contractors don’t miscategorize workers or hire undocumented workers to artificially lower their bids. This malicious practice both undercuts our local workforce and provides a lower quality of service on taxpayer-funded projects.

…

(Troy Merner, a Lancaster Republican, represents Coos District 7 in the N.H. House of Representatives.)

(Read More)

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Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak signs bill restoring prevailing wages (NV)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

May 28, 2019
Geoff Dornan

Gov. Steve Sisolak on Tuesday signed legislation repealing changes made by the Republican dominated 2015 Legislature that weakened Nevada’s prevailing wage laws.

The GOP raised the threshold for projects to require contractors pay prevailing wage from $100,000 to $250,000. They also directed the Labor Commissioner to set prevailing wages for public school and higher education construction projects at 90 percent of what would be required for other public works projects.

AB136 repeals both of those changes, restoring the law to what it was before 2015.
In addition, he signed SB231 which repealed language basically prohibiting contractors and subcontractors from entering into or adhering to any agreement with labor organizations when working on public projects. SB231 eliminates language that strongly discouraged public bodies from hiring contractors who have agreements with unions and prohibits public bodies from awarding grants, tax abatements credits or exemptions to contractors that enter agreements with labor organizations.

Sisolak said he was keeping his campaign promise to “return prevailing wage to public construction projects.”

He said that will help guarantee public construction projects are built by highly qualified workers and increase competition among those contractors.

(Read More)

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Games Contractors and Subs Play – Thinking about Playing the Wage Theft Game? Think Again

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

by Jim Kollaer | May 23, 2019

We have posted in the past about the Wage Theft Game and how rampant it is in construction around the globe. Globally, this game is played through the use of forced labor, conscripted labor, labor trafficking and a variety of other less than honest methods. Government officials in some second and third tier countries around the globe take bribes, kick-backs, endorse nepotism, make deals with the cartels and generally use a variety of illegal and underhanded methods to get projects built. Those projects range in size from major infrastructure projects such as bridges, dams, highways to palaces, second homes, schools and individual homes.

So, it is no wonder that many Contractors and Subs have either borrowed or brought with them the methods of the Wage Theft Game to the construction industry in the United States. Owners and investors may or may not know that these games are being played on their projects and we thought that we would reiterate some of the ways that Wage Theft games are being played on projects in your local market so that you would recognize it when you see it being played.

There are generally four variants of the Wage Theft Game that we see in our markets and that are defined in a recent article in Construction Dive. Those include non-payment, underpayment, misclassification and unauthorized deductions. Let’s take a quick look at each of them to see what they look like.

Non-payment – This one is relatively straightforward. Workers or subs do the work and the contractor or owner refuses to pay for that work. In today’s marketplace where we are seeing tight labor markets, contractors and subs are getting away with it as the result of the wider use of illegal workers – workers who have no recourse when a sub or contractor withholds paychecks and tells the illegal workers that if they complain that the Contractor will call ICE on them and their families and see that they are sent back to their home countries.

Underpayment – Many contractors and subs underpay their workers by using the “sub-sub” method where the prime sub gets a project for a specific bid or negotiated price and then subs the work to another work crew for a lower price and tells that crew that, ” I only have X dollars in this job and you can have it if you take it for that price.” The crew and the craft workers get shorted either by hourly rates or by flat rates for the project while the prime makes profit on the spread.

(Read More)

New Jersey Senate Bill A4897

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Permits … 50 year local public contracts for certain capital improvements and extends prevailing wage requirements to certain work performed under those contracts.

Second, contracts for the provision or performance of goods and services that require: (i) a total capital expenditure of more than $300,000, including expenditures by the lessee; or (ii) a capital improvement that has a life expectancy upon completion greater than 20 years, may be for a period of up to 50 years. The chief financial officer of the local government unit, however, is required to certify that the capital expenditure or capital improvement requirement is satisfied. The prevailing wage would have to be paid for any construction project under these capital improvement contracts.

(Read More)

(Copy of Bill)

New Jersey Senate Bill 368

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Authorizes political subdivisions to set aside 0.5 percent of public works funds to recruit and train women and minorities and promote local hiring.

A political subdivision may elect, but is not required, to transfer to the department or retain, for any one or more of the purposes indicated in subsection b. of this section or for the purpose of providing incentives or otherwise facilitating a local hiring and employment program, an amount equal to one half of one percent (0.5%) of the portion of any public work contract of the political subdivision.

(Read More)

(Copy of Bill)

Construction Apprenticeship Training in Pennsylvania (PA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on
Publication Date: February 22, 2019
Executive Summary 
After a deep industry decline in and after the Great Recession, the Pennsylvania construction industry has in the last several years again faced a shortage of skilled craft workers. This shortage could grow more severe in the years ahead due to an aging construction workforce, leading to high rates of retirement. Since the early 1990s, the share of the Pennsylvania construction industry workers aged 40 and over has risen from less than a third to nearly half.
In the context of emerging skills shortages, this report evaluates the role of apprenticeship training in meeting Pennsylvania’s need for skilled construction workers, relying primarily on official government data. The report highlights the distinction between apprenticeship programs governed by joint committees of labor and management, hereafter referred to as joint or union programs, and programs governed unilaterally by individual employers or employer associations (non-union programs).
  • Union programs account for nearly six out of every seven construction apprentices in Pennsylvania. Over the 2000 to 2016 period, 85 percent of construction apprentices in Pennsylvania participated in joint labor management programs and 15 percent in non-union, management-only, programs.
  • Union programs account for nine out of every 10 Pennsylvania construction apprentices who are not white and male. Union programs had 4,883 Non-White and Hispanic male construction apprentices from 2000 to 2016 and non-union ones had 568. Over this same period, 1,083 female apprentices participated in union programs, and 83 females participated in non-union programs.
  • Union apprenticeship programs graduate more than six veterans for every one veteran graduated by nonunion programs. Nearly 3,000 (2,749) veterans have participated in union construction apprenticeship programs in Pennsylvania since 2000, compared to 516 veterans who participated in non-union ones.
  • Graduation rates are higher in union apprenticeship programs, including for minorities, women, and veterans. Of those enrolled in union apprenticeship programs from 2000 to 2012, 56% had completed their apprenticeship by 2016, compared to a completion rate of 44% for non-union programs. For minority male and female apprentices, and for veterans, graduation rates were about 25% higher for union apprenticeship programs than non-union.
  • Wage rates at entry and especially at completion are higher in union apprenticeship programs. Starting wages for union apprentices are 36% higher than for non-union apprentices. Upon completion (or “exit”), the union apprentice pay premium compared to non-union apprentices climbs to 60%.
  • Higher shares of blue-collar union trades in Pennsylvania have a two- or four-year college degree than nonunion trades and the share of blue-collar union trades with a college degree has risen to one in four. The share of unionized blue-collar trades that have a two-year or four-year college degree has more than doubled since the early 1990s, to just over 25%. The share of non-union trades that have a college degree has also risen but remains 10 percentage points below the union share.

(Read More)

(PDF Copy of Report)

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Westchester County Wage Theft Trial Makes History (NY)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Teresa Santiago and Alice Kenny
Posted on May 15, 2019

First Case to Appear in Federal Court Wins Maximum Amount

In a history-making event, justice finally came to three day laborers whose wages had been stolen by their employer, thanks to significant intervention by Catholic Charities NY. A jury determined last Thursday, May 9, 2019, that TDL Restoration Inc. and its relating contractor company, TDL Management Corp., stiffed three of its employees for thousands of hours worked. The contractor did not pay the men regular wages nor overtime and when it issued paychecks they often bounced. Not only did the jury find in favor of the plaintiffs, … on all questions, but they are expected to be awarded the maximum damages permissible, close to $300,000, for violations of Federal and State labor laws.

…

Unfortunately, these three day laborers’ plight is not unusual

Unscrupulous contractors often stiff this group of men they consider not only vulnerable but powerless. Day laborers, typically immigrants, wait on corners under scorching sun and bitter cold hoping a contractor will offer them a job.

When left unpaid, they often feel powerless because of poverty and often lacking of legal status, to fight back.

Not this time

A team of organizations including Catholic Charities NY stood up to win this impressive victory for these otherwise defenseless men. Organizations included the Workers Justice legal team as well as National Day Laborer Organizing Network organizations. Counted among these organizations are Catholic Charities Obreros Unidos of Yonkers, Community Resource Center, United Community Center, Don Bosco Workers and Neighbors Link.

…

“Wage theft by TDL Restoration not only hurts the individual workers who should have been paid more under federal and state law,” said Catholic Charites Community Services Westchester Regional Director Esmeralda Hoscoy, “but also the businesses of law-abiding contractors whose bids on contracts are hired to reflect their higher labor cost.

(Read More)

Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee Increases Wage Protections on Public Works Jobs (WA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

May 7 , 2019

Public works projects in Washington state will have increased protections for construction workers with the enactment of a bill that allows them additional time to file complaints over failure to pay the proper wages.

Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed into law May 7 ESSB 5035, which increases the window from 30 to 60 days after a public works job is accepted to file a complaint over failure to pay the prevailing wage.

(PDF Copy of Bill)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR RECOVERS $2,772,977 FOR 6,450 DISASTER RECOVERY WORKERS

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Agency- Wage and Hour Division
Date – May 8, 2019
Release Number – 19-0721-NEW

PHILADELPHIA, PA – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), WSP USA Services Inc. – based in Winchester, Virginia, and doing business as WSP USA Inspection Services, Inc. – has paid $2,772,977 in back wages to 6,450 employees for violating the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act (SCA) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Under contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), WSP USA Services Inc. performed disaster-related housing inspections in U.S. territories and states – including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and California – following hurricanes and other natural disasters.

Investigations by WHD’s Caribbean and New York City District Offices found the contracting agency’s failure to amend the contract at renewal to include the most recent wage determination led WSP USA Services Inc. to underpay SCA-required prevailing wages and fringe benefits to employees. The employer also failed to post the wage determination, which lists the required pay rates for each category of work performed, and the SCA poster, as required. The FLSA violations stemmed in part from WSP USA’s failure to include bonuses in employees’ regular pay rates when determining their overtime rates. This exclusion resulted in the employer paying overtime at rates lower than those required by law.

“Contractors that bid on government contracts must exercise due diligence and be aware of – and pay – the required rates and benefits to their employees,” said Wage and Hour Division Northeast Deputy Regional Administrator Maria Rosado. “All federal contracting agencies advertising for bids and awarding contracts are required to include the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act labor standards and a current wage determination stating the minimum wages to be paid various classes of service employees. Our enforcement of these requirements help to level the playing field for all contractors doing business with the government.”

(Read More)