U.S. House Overwhelmingly Rejects Attack on Davis-Bacon Act

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52 Republicans Express Support for Prevailing Wage Statute 

5/1/2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, DC (May 1, 2015) — The following statement was released today by North America’s Building Trades Unions, in reaction to the defeat of an amendment to H.R.2029 – The Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2016 – that would have denied enforcement of the Davis-Bacon Act prevailing wage statute on military construction projects:

“With the support of 52 Republican members, an overwhelming bi-partisan majority in the United States House of Representatives has once again rejected an attempt to eradicate the Davis-Bacon Act, which ensures the protection of local community wage and benefit standards on federally-funded construction projects.  The amendment, sponsored by Representative Steve King (R-IA) was defeated by a decisive vote of 186-235.

G.O.P. Expands Labor Battle to Laws Setting State Construction Wages

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By MONICA DAVEY | 

A bill that would end prescribed wages on public construction projects in Indiana awaits the signature of Gov. Mike Pence. And Henry Burks, a union electrician who lives near Indianapolis, is bracing.

Mr. Burks, 57, is putting off plans to build a patio at his house. He is delaying painting and landscaping, too. And he said he is worried about how to continue helping his grown children with college costs if his income drops, as he firmly expects.

“This is going to inhibit me from taking care of my family,” Mr. Burks, who makes about $60,000 a year, said the other day as he took a break from installing conduit inside a corn processing plant in Lafayette. “Our wages will go down. The contractors we work for won’t get as many jobs. Maybe I’ll have to find work outside of Indiana.”

Walsh: Dialogue needed on public project wages

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Monday,

March 23, 2015

By: Jack Encarnacao

 

Mayor Martin J. Walsh said raising the wages of union laborers who work on public projects should be part of the national dialogue on income inequality during a panel discussion with the mayors of New York, Baltimore and Seattle.

Walsh praised the Legislature for boosting the state minimum wage to $11 by 2017 before mentioning the “prevailing wage law,” which pays Boston tradesman in the range of $30 to $50 an hour to work on public projects.

“I think we have to look at the prevailing wage law as well to make sure that we give people the opportunity to … have a living wage,” Walsh said during the “Municipal Strategies for Financial Empowerment” public forum at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

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Sunshine Week: Beat reporter shines light on schools’ use of federal contracts

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By Robert Brauchle

March 16, 2015

 

Reporter Ryan Murphy began 2014 with a tip that Isle of Wight County Schools may have skirted federal regulations in the construction of the new Georgie D. Tyler Middle School.

Using the state Freedom of Information Act to access copies of contracts, emails and bid documents, the Daily Press Isle of Wight County beat reporter found that the school division had omitted wage standards from the construction contract that are required under the federal Davis-Bacon Act. The effect was to lower the cost of construction by underpaying local workers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“I spent a couple of months digging into the documents and digging into legislation to figure out exactly what had happened,” Murphy said.

Murphy worked with school administrators to get the documents he needed.

(Read More)

New Study Released on the Impact of Prevailing Wage Repeal in West Virginia

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January 28, 2015

The Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation, a division of the West Virginia State Building Trades, has just released a study by Michael Kelsay, Ph.D., University of Missouri- Kansas City, Dept. of Economics, on the adverse economic impact from prevailing wage repeal in the state. Please follow the link below for a full copy of the report.

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Klein details ‘New Deal’ plan for windfall funds

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By Josefa Velasquez
5:47 p.m. | Dec. 8, 2014

ALBANY-State Senator Jeff Klein, who leads the Independent Democratic Conference, has proposed a two-pronged program to use the state’s $5 billion windfall from bank settlements for a modern-day version of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Klein’s “New Deal for New York” would use part of the bank settlement money to create a new program called Empire Public Works, dedicated to upgrading the state’s infrastructure.

In an interview with Capital, Klein said the infrastructure projects in the program would be required to pay prevailing wages, which would apply to agencies like the M.T.A., housing authorities, and bridge and tunnel authorities, which don’t always pay prevailing wages.

“It’s money that I believe was stolen from the taxpayers from financial institutions accused of financial crimes against New Yorkers,” he said in a phone interview, adding, “It certainly makes sense that this infusion of cash go right back in to the pockets of hardworking New Yorkers.”

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A.G. SCHNEIDERMAN AND D.O.I. COMMISSIONER PETERS ANNOUNCE ARRESTS OF NYC SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION AND HOUSING AUTHORITY CONTRACTORS AND LABOR BROKERS

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Contractors Allegedly Paid Workers Below Prevailing Wage, Labor Brokers Demanded Kickbacks On NYC School And Housing Construction Projects

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: DECEMBER 4, 2014

(New York, NY) Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and New York City Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark G. Peters announced today the arrests and indictments of a contractor and two labor brokers overseeing New York City School Construction Authority (SCA) and Housing Authority (NYCHA) projects for allegedly underpaying construction workers. The arrests stem from a joint investigation into underpayment and kickback schemes on projects at P.S. 196K, a public school in Brooklyn, and the Pomonok Houses Project in Queens. As alleged in two indictments, several workers were deprived of several thousand dollars each from the alleged schemes. If convicted on the top counts, each defendant faces up to seven years in prison.

“Contractors who work on public projects cannot ignore New York State’s labor laws in order to line their own pockets,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “In this case and many others, my office is taking aggressive action, including criminal prosecution when appropriate, to ensure that workers are paid the wages they’ve earned.”

“Not only does prevailing wage fraud deprive honest workers of fair pay, but it is a gateway to other schemes that endanger public safety. Exposing and putting an end to prevailing wage fraud is a cornerstone of DOI’s multi-pronged effort to combat corruption in New York City construction. I thank the Attorney General and his staff for their partnership on these important cases,” New York City Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark G. Peters said.

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ICR seeks $3.62 million from VVWRA

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SHEA JOHNSON – STAFF WRITER 
Posted Nov. 13, 2014 @ 6:42 pm 

VICTORVILLE – The staffing agency co-owned by San Bernardino County 1st District Supervisor Robert Lovingood sought $3.62 million in damages from Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority this year, according to a claim obtained Thursday by the Daily Press.

In the claim dated Aug. 22, ICR Staffing Services alleged that VVWRA failed to pay prevailing wage to ICR’s contract workers between 2011 and 2013 and solicited ICR’s temporary employees to jump ship to a competing staffing agency. The claim was served Sept. 11.

“We obviously had a discussion with the claimants prior to the filing of the claim and responded,” VVWRA General Manager Logan Olds said Thursday. “The board took a look at it and the direction was to deny the claim.”

In a numbered format, the claim lists a series of alleged wrong-doings by VVWRA, which had utilized ICR workers between 2011 and 2013 for the Upper Narrows Pipeline project, but in May chose lower-bidding Hesperia-based iLink Business Management for future contract services.

In 2011, a two-year contract services agreement provided ICR employees a gross figure of roughly $260,000 per year. But since the project was subject to reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the contract should have been let as prevailing wage and “generated a gross annual billing in excess of $1.5 million,” the claim states.

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This KY Contractor Has Spent 10 Years Fighting $50,000 in Back Wage Claims. They Finally Lost.

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November 5, 2014

A case brought forward by the Kentucky Building Trades was recently upheld in the Kentucky Court of Appeals providing a victory for both the involved unions and their signatory contractors.  The case will mean Teco Mechanical, a non-union contractor from Lexington, will pay $54,164 in back wages to its workers along with a $5,250 penalty (plus eight percent compound interest from December of 2004).  The nearly decade-long case has gone through all levels of the Kentucky legal system and tested both the patience and perseverance of the Kentucky Labor Cabinet.

The incidents themselves date back to 2000 when Teco worked several prevailing wage projects and failed to correctly pay its employees.  The Kentucky Labor Cabinet then performed an investigation, according to the Court of Appeals opinion:

TECO is a mechanical contractor that provided contractor and subcontractor services on a number of public works projects. Pursuant to statute, contracts for these projects required TECO to pay its employees no less than the prevailing wage.1 KRS 337.510(1). In 2001, several TECO employees contacted the Kentucky Labor Cabinet and alleged that TECO had failed to pay them the prevailing wages for the work that they had performed. The employees asserted that TECO had paid them according to a formula under which it classified them as lower paid, general laborers for a fixed number of hours and as higher paid, skilled laborers for a fixed number of hours-regardless of the actual time spent working in each classification.

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L&I settles $200,000 claim against Whatcom County Jail contractor

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October 2, 2014

Bellingham – A contractor renovating the Whatcom County Jail has paid nearly $200,000 in back wages owed to 13 workers on the project.

Sierra Detention Systems, of Brighton, Colo., paid the money following a Washington State Department of Labor & Industries investigation, which was spurred by a January worker complaint. The company paid lower apprenticeship wages to electricians.

“We don’t know whether the company’s intent was to avoid paying the higher journeyman wage,” said Jim Christensen, Prevailing Wage Program manager for the agency, who noted this was a first-time offense for the firm. “In this case, the employees were doing the work of electricians and were not part of any state-registered apprenticeship program.”

(Read More)