BBC Foundation & Flatwork LLC has paid $137,705 in back wages to 31 employees of the Carleton concrete company for performing work on a federal transit project in Toledo.
An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found that the contractor violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, Davis-Bacon and Related Acts and the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act.
All Agency Memorandum #213 sets forth new standards for the implementation of the Davis-Bacon Act “conformance” procedure. The conformance process has the limited purpose of establishing a new classification when it is necessary to do so because work needed to perform the contract is not performed by an existing classification on the wage determination. The regulations require that wage rates for additional classifications, when “conformed” to an existing wage determination, bear a “reasonable relationship” to the wage rates in that wage determination.
The new policy states that ” [i]n keeping with the remedial purpose of the [Davis Bacon and Related Acts] and the governing regulations, the wage rate of the lowest skilled craft, laborer, power equipment operator, or truck driver classification on the contract wage determination” will “no longer” be the “automatic benchmark when reviewing conformance requests. ”
In conjunction with the AAM #213, DOL’s Wage & Hour Division has a new website with the new policy directives on it. Below are a few of the new policies and pages.
The Labor Commission reported that the prime contractor, Valley Vanguard, is jointly and severally liable for all assessments issued against the six subcontractors.
“Valley Vanguard, as the prime contractor for the highway expansion project, is responsible for ensuring that all workers performing construction work on a public works project are paid the correct prevailing wage rates,” Su said.
“This is not a union/non-union issue,” said Dave Meier, of the Indiana-Ohio-Kentucky Regional Council of Carpenters. “This is a worker rights issue.”
The Politics of Wage Suppression: Inside ALEC’s Legislative Campaign Against Low-Paid Workers
Main Findings:
• ALEC’s “model legislation” includes multiple proposals to weaken or repeal wage standards that protect the earnings of low-‐paid workers. These proposals include measures to repeal state minimum wage laws, reduce minimum wage rates for youth and tipped workers, weaken overtime compensation policies, and block local governments from establishing living wage ordinances.
• Since January 2011, legislators from 31 states have introduced 105 bills that aim to suppress the wages of low-‐paid workers by repealing or weakening core wage standards at the state or local level. 67 of these 105 bills were directly sponsored or co-‐sponsored by ALEC-‐affiliated legislators from 25 states.
• As conservative majorities assume power in 31 statehouses this year – including 15 statehouses under the control of veto-‐proof supermajorities – ALEC’s wage suppression agenda poses a threat to the earnings and economic security of low-‐paid workers across the country.
Recent actions by Federal authorities in Texas – namely the arrest of six top officials of Dibon Solutions for conspiracy to commit H-1B visa fraud and wire fraud charges – shows an uptick in prosecution of guest worker program abusers.
H1-B visa fraud lowers the wages of American workers by flooding markets with cheap foreign labor. It also allows for abuse of those coming to America to work when the control of their passport and legal status is in the hands of unscrupulous employers.
A dispute about whether a $78 million project being built in Clifton Heights that uses some city money should pay prevailing wage to its workers is headed to court.
“We were under the impression that it was a prevailing wage project,” said Quinlivan, a former WCPO reporter. “It was bid that way, it was advertised that way and there’s documentation to that effect,” she added. “Some time after the project got started, that changed.”
NAFC will join with the Center for Contract Compliance (CCC) of Southern California to co-sponsor this years conference in sunny San Diego, CA. The conference will be held at the Hilton Bayfront Hotel. NAFC Chairman Rocco Davis and CCC Director Jim Reed are diligently planning content and speakers to ensure this will be our most successful conference to date.
Click on the below pdf to sign up now! Spacing will be limited, so ensure to get your registration done early! More information to be released on NAFC’s website @ www.faircontracting.org.
As of today, all past issues of NAFC’s Prevailing Times are now available on the Fair Contracting Website. The links are included below and sorted by date.
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
A bill that sought to protect the identities of those who blew the whistle on employers who did not pay the public works minimum wage was vetoed by Gov. Susana Martinez on Monday.
“The bill’s overly broad mandate to protect the identity of prevailing wage complainants ignores the realities of prevailing wage investigation and prosecution,” Martinez said in her veto message.