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City Looks to Pay Off Undocumented Workers Cheated by Contractors (NY)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

BY JEANINE RAMIREZ 
PUBLISHED 8:14 AM ET JAN. 25, 2019

An asbestos abatement contractor using a Cropsey Avenue address in Brooklyn is one of more than 50 companies banned from doing city-funded work for allegedly underpaying workers.

“The reason these workers are cheated is because there is a feeling with some of these contractors that you can get away with that because the workers are immigrants or they may appear vulnerable,” City Comptroller Scott Stringer said.

Most of the companies did construction work or provided building services under city contracts.

Comptroller Scott Stringer says his office already has recovered $12 million from the companies for 1,500 people who suffered wage theft.

But Stringer says he’s recovered an additional $2.5 million that still must be distributed.Stringer added, “We want to locate the other 1,500 workers who were scammed and lost their wages. They’re out there. They’re out there in our boroughs. They could be around the corner.”

Many of the workers cheated by city contractors are immigrants. Stringer’s office cited the case of one man who eventually left the city and returned to Ecuador, where he was contacted and provided with his back pay.

“We had great news for him, we had the opportunity to send him a lot of checks with a significant amount of money that he received in Ecuador,” said Linda Machuca, Consul General of Ecuador in NY.

The cheated workers receive back pay plus interest, regardless of their immigration status. Immigrant rights groups and consulates are working with the city to locate some of those owed money. Officials say undocumented immigrants who receive wage awards will not be reported to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

(Read More)

Construction workers rally for unpaid wages (TN)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Posted: 8:21 PM, Feb 05, 2019

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) – Construction workers and Metro Council Members gathered at the steps of the Historic Metro Courthouse Tuesday night, denouncing what they call “legal attacks” made by general contractor Skanska.

Workers who helped build the J.W. Marriott in downtown Nashville are part of an ongoing labor dispute against two drywall subcontractors hired by Skanska, a company currently building the Fifth + Broadway development downtown. At least one hundred workers say they are still owed two weeks worth of pay.

Advocates say a group of affected workers and community supporters visited Skanska’s offices in December, and were promised a follow up meeting.

But days later, advocates say names of some of the workers appeared in counter-lawsuit against their original mechanic’s liens claims.

“We believe that in our city all workers deserve good working conditions and it is our duty to ensure that their rights are upheld, protected, and that we in this city start creating more and more enforcement mechanisms to do exactly that,” said Metro Council member Fabian Bedne.

Cesar Ramirez, an affected J.W. Marriott worker, said: “We won’t stop until justice is made here, we feel betrayed that after giving [Skanska regional Vice President Dennis Georgatos] the benefit of the doubt, and believing that Skanska truly wanted a positive resolution, what we got in return, was one more attack in court.”

Workers and community supporters are demanding back pay from Skanska, and for the company to drop their counter-suit.


(Read More)

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Bill aimed at “wage and benefit theft” has public hearing (WA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

SARA GENTZLER   FEBRUARY 4, 2019

The House Labor & Workplace Standards Committee last week heard testimony on a bill that would add the ways workers in Washington’s construction industry can take action if they don’t get paid.

The bill is meant to address “wage and benefit theft,” which can arise in home remodels and construction projects where a general contractor hires subcontractors, who hire workers. The “theft” occurs when a worker doesn’t get paid by the subcontractor who hired them.

The committee heard public testimony on the bill last week.

Evelyn Shapiro, principal officer for the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, talked in her testimony about workers who have been threatened at gunpoint after asking for wages and sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after completing a job.

The impact of unpaid wages can also ripple out, Shapiro explained after the hearing, leading to “billions of dollars in unrecovered taxes and premiums” and creating a difficult environment for contractors who play by the rules.

“The contractors who follow the law have no ability to build on an even playing field when they are underbid constantly by other contractors who are underbidding them by as much as 30 percent,” Shapiro said. “We feel that not only does it hurt workers, it hurts our infrastructure, it hurts our social systems.”

If workers aren’t paid by the subcontractors who hire them, they currently have two options for trying to recover their missing wages. They can:

  • Go through Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries, which investigates the claim and can order the employer to pay, then collect wages plus interest; or
  • Take the case to civil court.

(Read More)

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W.Va. judge strikes down key portions of right-to-work law (WV)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

BY JOHN RABY – ASSOCIATED PRESS
FEBRUARY 27, 2019 11:07 PM

CHARLESTON, W.VA.
A judge on Wednesday sided with labor unions in striking down key portions of West Virginia’s so-called right-to-work law, including those that allowed workers to stop paying union dues.

Kanawha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey made the ruling in a lawsuit filed by the state chapter of the AFL-CIO and other unions. The judge said some provisions of the 2016 law violated the state constitution.

Labor unions maintained the law illegally took their assets since they still have to represent all employees in a union shop, including those that the law would allow to stop paying union dues.

Bailey struck down provisions that would authorize union employees to stop paying dues and fees or, in lieu of that, make payments to a charity or third party.

The new law would have required unions and union officials “to work, to supply their valuable expertise, and to provide expensive services for nothing,” Bailey wrote.

…

West Virginia AFL-CIO President Josh Sword said Bailey “was right-on with her ruling. We entered into this lengthy legal challenge nearly three years ago because we knew the law violated of the rights of West Virginia workers – and we simply won’t stand for that.”

Curtis Johnson, a spokesman for West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, said Morrisey’s office is reviewing the circuit court’s decision

(Read More)

2019 NAFC Membership

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

January 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.

SAVE THE DATE – 21st Annual NAFC Conference, September 22-24, 2018 – Boston, MA

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

January 2019

It’s our 21st Annual Conference and we wanted to ensure you save the date and join us in the great city of Boston, MA. The Conference will be held at the Sheraton Boston Hotel, in downtown Boston. The NAFC Annual Conference is attended by 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.

Stay tuned for further information.

(Visit NAFC’s Conference Page)

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New Prevailing Wage Papers: Effect of Prevailing Wage Repeals on Construction Income and Benefits and a second one on Effects of Enactments on Injuries and Disabilities

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

January 22, 2019

Economists from the University of Utah have published two papers over the last year on the relationship of prevailing wage laws first to income and benefits and second to injuries and disabilities. Both are published in Public Works Management & Policy, a peer reviewed academic journal. See below for abstracts and links to the papers.

While considerable research has examined the effects of prevailing wage law repeals on construction wages, little has been done on the repeals effect on benefits. … we find that depending on sample and model specification, statewide annual average construction blue-collar income fell by 1.9% to 4.2%. Statewide annual average legally required benefits (social security, workers injury-compensation insurance, and unemployment insurance contributions) for blue- and white-collar construction employees combined fell from 3.8% to 10.1%. Statewide annual average voluntary benefits (primarily health insurance, pension contributions, and apprenticeship training) for blue- and white-collar construction employees combined fell from 11.2% to 16.0%.

(PDF Copy of Paper on the “Effect of Prevailing Wage Repeals on Construction Income and Benefits”)

State prevailing wage law repeals have been shown to lower wages and benefits- including benefits providing safety training and associated with worker retention in construction. … we find that repealing state prevailing wage laws increase construction injury rates across various types of injuries from 11.6% to 13.1% as the seriousness of injuries increases. Disabilities increase by 7.5% to 8.2% depending on the model specification.

(PDF Copy of Paper on the “Effect of Prevailing Wage Repeals and Enactments on Injuries and Disabilities in the Construction Industry”)

Could Gov. Newsom’s ambitious housing goals be sidelined by a worker shortage? (CA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Labor think tank says California would need at least 200,000 new construction workers

By LEONARDO CASTAÑEDA
PUBLISHED: January 14, 2019

Gov. Gavin Newsom has said he wants to build as many as 3.5 million new houses by 2025 to solve California’s housing crisis.

But those ambitious goals could be derailed without hundreds of thousands of new construction workers needed to dramatically accelerate the pace of California home building, even assuming that cities agree to zone for more housing and there’s money available to build it all. And it’s hard to imagine, given recent trends, where that many additional workers in the low-wage, high-risk industry would come from.

Newsom took an early stab at the money question in his first budget, offering $500 million in state funding for middle-income housing, But he wants California’s companies to take on a bigger role funding new homes. And he said he’s already talked with some Silicon Valley tech companies who are open to cooperating.

Ramping up housing construction from about 100,000 units in 2016 to 1980s levels – about 300,000 new homes were built in 1986 – would require some 200,000 new workers, according to the researcher behind a new study for Smart Cities Prevail, a pro-union nonprofit. But even that influx of workers wouldn’t be enough to meet the goal of 500,000 new houses a year that Newsom floated during his campaign.

“Workers are not going to fall out of trees,” researcher Scott Littlehale said.

Littlehale’s study found that California housing construction isn’t just failing to attract new workers. It’s losing the workers it already has, many of whom are low wage and lower-skilled.

From 2006 to 2017, California lost about 200,000 construction workers. And within the construction trade, many workers are opting for commercial building jobs, which pay more, have better benefits and steadier work.

During the boom building years, the construction industry was “dependent on young workers without a college degree and on immigrant workers,” Littlehale said. Today, both populations are on the decline.

(Read More)

(View PDF of Study – Rebuilding California: The Golden State’s Housing Workforce Reckoning)

Prevailing wage and collective bargaining boost labor market competitiveness and productivity

  • The housing industry currently lacks the wage competitiveness and career training pipeline needed to offset the physical and economic risks of construction. This is hindering its ability to attract and retain the workers needed to increase production of new units.
  • Prevailing Wage standards and collective bargaining agreements are consistently associated with higher wages, increased apprenticeship enrollment, more production efficiency, and fewer workplace safety problems.
  • Most peer reviewed studies have concluded prevailing wage has no significant effect on overall project costs.

Housing builders’ reservoir of low-wage, less-skilled labor is not refilling itself. Background regulations that promote labor-management cooperation around the vital elements of skilled construction workforce development can play a vital role in restoring California residential building to the production engine that it once was.

(Executive Summary)

(Rebuilding California – Video)

Council bill aims to impose prevailing wage on all city-subsidized projects (NY)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Wage and safety bills would incentivize union labor, but critics fear higher price tag.

By JEFF COLTIN
JANUARY 8, 2019

New York City Councilman Ben Kallos is reintroducing a stalled bill that would require all construction workers to get paid the prevailing wage on any projects getting city subsidies.

Under state law, any project built under a government contract must pay workers the prevailing wage. Kallos’ bill would cast a much wider net, mandating the prevailing wage for not just direct government contracts, but for any projects getting grants, bond financing, tax abatements or any other sort of support valued over $1 million from the New York City government.

“The same rules should apply when the city is doing the work directly or when they’re subsidizing somebody else to do the work,” the Manhattan lawmaker told City & State.

…

Critics like the Real Estate Board of New York, which represents developers, have spent heavily in the past to oppose efforts to expand the prevailing wage requirements, claiming higher labor costs would discourage private developers from building affordable housing.

Kallos countered that paying workers less than prevailing wage actually makes the affordable housing crisis worse by creating demand for housing at deeper levels of affordability.

“I’m disappointed to learn even the construction workers can’t afford the affordable housing that they are building,” he said.

(Read More)

Calif. Prevailing Wage Law Applied to Recycling Plant Employees (CA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Joanne Deschenaux
January 4, 2019

California’s prevailing wage law requires that all workers employed on “public works”-generally, construction projects-be paid at least as much as is generally paid for the performance of similar work in the same geographic area. A California appellate court has ruled that this law was not limited to construction projects and applied to workers who sorted recyclable materials at two publicly owned and operated recycling facilities.

The plaintiffs, who worked as sorters, sued a staffing company that provided employees to the two facilities under contracts with Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, alleging, among other claims, that the defendant had failed to pay them the prevailing wage.

The trial court granted the staffing company’s motion to dismiss the prevailing wage claims, ruling that the work done by the plaintiffs did not come within the prevailing wage law’s definition of “public works” because it was not construction work. The plaintiffs appealed.

The appellate court reversed the trial court’s decision. One provision of the prevailing wage law defines public works as “construction, alteration, demolition, installation or repair work done under contract and paid for in whole or in part out of public funds.” But this is not the only definition in the statute, the court said.

Another provision further defines public works as work done for “irrigation, utility, reclamation, and improvement districts, and other districts of this type.” The recyclable sorting work here was done for a county sanitation district, and so the work at issue fell within this second statutory definition and the plaintiffs were entitled to receive the prevailing wage, the court said.

(Read More)

(PDF Copy of Decision)