By Stephen Mills
9/17/19
MONTPELIER – The City Council is considering crafting responsible employer and livable wage ordinances to make residing in the Capital City more affordable.
Discussion of the proposed ordinances came at a meeting of City Council last week. Councilor Conor Casey proposed enacting a Responsible Employer Ordinance that would require the city of Montpelier to follow “good employer” requirements when spending taxpayer money on contracted services that would include “responsible wages,” worker’s compensation and the proper classification of workers as employees instead of independent contractors, among other employment protections.
The council also reviewed a report on a Livable Wage Ordinance by Michael Sherman, of the Social and Economic Justice Advisory Committee, after the council identified implementing a living wage requirement in Montpelier in its 2018-2019 strategic plan.
Casey noted that the city is going through a recent building boom with the near-completion of Taylor Street Transit Center and shared-use recreation path, and a $16.5 million upgrade for the Waste Water Treatment Facility. The city is also proposing to build a $10.5 million parking garage.
Casey said that construction workers were a “largely invisible” workforce that deserved recognition, employee protections and livable wages.
“I think this is a group that has been sort of been abandoned by the federal government,” Casey said, and referenced the federal Davis-Bacon Act that seeks to ensure minimum wages to be paid to various classes of laborers and mechanics employed under the contract, but added, “It isn’t what is once was.”
“We can actually see people who are risking their lives, working on construction sites, with a wage that would be less than what we want as minimum wage, maybe $12 an hour,” Casey said, adding that the state had opposed appropriate wage structures for construction workers.
“This is an issue I’ve always felt strongly about,” Casey said, noting he has spent his professional career representing “frontline workers.” Casey currently works as an organizer for the Vermont-National Education Association, representing more than 12,000 teachers in the state.
“Even though they might not Montpelier residents, (construction workers) deserve to be treated with the same standards that we treat our own workers,” Casey said, noting that the Montpelier has three collective bargaining units for city workers.