US Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Prevailing Wage Seminars

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

DESCRIPTION

The Wage and Hour Division (WHD) Prevailing Wage Seminars are three-day compliance trainings designed for regional stakeholders (private contractors, state agencies, unions, federal agencies and workers).

The first two days of the seminar will consist of either courses on the Davis-Bacon Act or the Service Contract Act. The third day will feature courses concerning the Executive Orders and subject matter related to both the Davis-Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act as well as presentations from other agencies such as OSHA, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

We have selected the following locations for our 2018 seminars:

Venues will be announced at a later date. 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”)

For any questions please contact WHD-PWS@dol.gov 

(Visit DOL’s WHD Website)

DA holds labor law conference

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By: Adina Genn
March 23, 2018

Labor leaders, elected officials and representatives from county, state and federal agencies gathered this week for a labor law conference at The Morrelly Center in Bethpage, hosted by Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas.

The conference, the district attorney’s second, aimed to share information and discuss trends toward protecting employees and taxpayers.

“When unscrupulous employers cheat in one aspect, they often cheat in everything,” Singas said in a statement. “It starts with stealing hard earned wages from their employees, and then evolves into submitting false payroll records, false tax returns and cheating the unemployment insurance system.”

In 2017, the Nassau DA began working with district attorney offices in New York City and Westchester, along with the state Attorney General’s office and the U.S. Department of Labor to launch a wage-theft investigation within the construction industry. This year the Nassau DA’s wage theft saw 30 cases related to undocumented workers who aren’t being paid, up from two last year. And at an event that the DA’s office organized with Univision generated new cases.

Attendees at the 2018 conference included Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, Westchester County District Attorney Anthony Scarpino and Putnam County District Attorney Robert Tendy as well as representatives from the Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office; Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office; the New York State Labor Department; Occupational Safety and Health Administration; Queens County District Attorney’s Office; the Law Office of Archer, Byington, Glennon & Levine; and Maryhaven Center of Hope.

(Read More)

US Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Prevailing Wage Seminars

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

DESCRIPTION

The Wage and Hour Division (WHD) Prevailing Wage Seminars are three-day compliance trainings designed for regional stakeholders (private contractors, state agencies, unions, federal agencies and workers).

The first two days of the seminar will consist of either courses on the Davis-Bacon Act or the Service Contract Act. The third day will feature courses concerning the Executive Orders and subject matter related to both the Davis-Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act as well as presentations from other agencies such as OSHA, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

We have selected the following locations for our 2018 seminars:

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”)

For any questions please contact WHD-PWS@dol.gov

(Visit DOL’s WHD Website)

SAVE THE DATE – 20th Annual NAFC Conference, August 19-22, 2018 – San Diego, CA

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

It’s our 20th Anniversary! Save the date and join NAFC at its next Annual Conference in sunny San Diego, CA. The Conference will be held at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel, in downtown San Diego. This year’s Conference will be jointly sponsored by the Center for Contract Compliance and will have a national and also a California specific focus. The NAFC National Conference is attended by participants from across the nation, including representatives from labor organizations, fair 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)

For military vets, unions offer camaraderie, careers and help adapting to civilian life

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

JANUARY 9, 2018
BY B. DAVID ZARLEY

Laura Asher may be the tallest thing for miles.

Asher had climbed multiple ladders, lightly struck her helmeted head on a protruding hose, maneuvered through a small, greased aperture, and taken a seat at the controls of a luffing tower crane, roughly 80 feet above Illinois. She was far enough south that the skyscrapers of Chicago had given way to flat former prairie which seems to run, flush and forever.

The crane and its canary compatriots tower above the landscape, rivaled only by the wind turbine trainer and the stacks of shipping containers across a large pond from the William E. Dugan Training Center, where the Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers trains apprentices and journeymen.

…

Asher’s father was an operating engineer, a member of the union, and he suggested she look into joining. With help from Helmets to Hardhats, a nonprofit that connects veterans with job training in the construction sector, Asher put in her application and was accepted to Local 150’s training program. The application cost $25 in processing fees and the training is free.

Millions of post-9/11 veterans like Asher-including those who served in Afghanistan, Iraq, against ISIS, and in the myriad other actions which constitute the War on Terror-have come home and transitioned from military to civilian life. While women made up a mere 4 percent of the veterans from the World War II, Korean War and Vietnam eras, the veterans from the second Gulf War and onward are 18 percent female, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released in March 2017. Both male and female veterans’ unemployment rates hover around the 5 percent mark.

The study also found that in 2016, Gulf War-era II veterans, as they’re called, were unemployed at a rate similar to their non-veteran peers with one exception: men aged 25-35, whose unemployment rate was 6.6 percent compared to 4.9 percent for non-veterans. Veterans were also far more likely to work in the public sector than non-veterans, especially for the federal government.

This massive pool of workers is especially appealing to the skilled labor unions. Currently, Asher can be seen on televisions around the region in a commercial enticing veterans to train with the Local 150. Helmets to Hardhats, the trade union-sponsored nonprofit that connects veterans and soon-to-be veterans with job programs in the construction sector, was borne out of unions’ recruitment efforts.

“The veterans are coming from all over the nation and coming home,” said Robert Schwartz, senior program manager of Helmets to Hardhats. “So how do we reach out to them and let them know about these opportunities that we have for them for their next career?”

For the unions, veterans bring valuable benefits as a labor pool, both tangible and intangible.

(Read More)

19th Annual NAFC Conference – Nashville, TN, Sept. 25 – 26, 2017

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

NAFC will be holding its next Annual Conference in 2017 in Music City U.S.A., Nashville, Tennessee. The Conference will be held at the Sheraton Nashville Downtown Hotel, in the heart of the city. NAFC’s National Conference is attended by several hundred participants from across the nation, including representatives from labor organizations, fair contractors, fair contracting compliance organizations as well as researchers, academics, attorneys and officials from federal, state and local governments. A schedule of events and registration forms are available at the below link to NAFC’s Conference page. Stay tuned for further details.

 

SOLD OUT

NABTU Apprenticeship Programs Seen as Model for Expansion

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

North America’s Building Trades Unions
14 Jun, 2017, 09:16 ET

WASHINGTON, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The following statement was released today in response to the Trump Administration’s announcement of planned initiatives designed to increase apprenticeship education and training across the US economy:

“We commend the Administration for elevating and promoting the power of apprenticeship programs for workers and whole industries. As the preeminent organization involved in apprenticeship readiness and apprenticeship education and training today, North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), its affiliated unions, and its contractor partners appreciate efforts by the Federal Government to increase utilization of apprenticeship education.

“Among construction apprentices in the US today, 75 percent are trained in the joint apprentice training committee (JATC) system, which the Building Trades operate in cooperation with their contractor partners. We know from over 100 years of experience that robust, labor-management commitment to and investment in craft training ensures the necessary and portable skills for workers to meet specific demands of employers and entire industries, while also providing the means for individuals and communities to gain a foothold on the ladder to the middle class. Coupled with increased investments in infrastructure, apprenticeship can unleash broad, sustainable growth throughout the country while also allowing for career pathways for long underserved communities and those looking to embark on safe, highly skilled, productive and rewarding careers in the construction industry.

“In the Building Trades, these apprenticeship career pathways have been fully developed through articulation agreements and other relationships with US colleges and universities. All Building Trades apprenticeship programs, for example, have been assessed for higher education credit. In fact, NABTU considers apprenticeship training ‘the other four-year degree.’ If the Building Trades training system, which includes both apprentice-level and journeyman-level training, was a degree granting college or university, it would be the largest degree granting college or university in the United States – over 5 times larger than Arizona State University. In fact, NABTU’s training infrastructure is rivaled only by the US military in terms of the quality and depth of skills training.

“US Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta framed it correctly when he observed, ‘if you look into the Building Trades, there’s almost a billion [dollars] that’s spent every year, and that’s all private sector money. The Building Trades have put together labor management organizations that jointly invest in these apprenticeship programs because they know both on the labor side and the management side that a skilled workforce is critical to the Building Trades. And that’s how it’s worked for a number of years.’

(Read More)

19th Annual NAFC Conference – Nashville, TN, Sept. 25 – 26, 2017

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Available reservations are filling up quickly, get your registration form and hotel accommodations in today!

NAFC will be holding its next Annual Conference in 2017 in Music City U.S.A., Nashville, Tennessee. The Conference will be held at the Sheraton Nashville Downtown Hotel, in the heart of the city. NAFC’s National Conference is attended by several hundred participants from across the nation, including representatives from labor organizations, fair contractors, fair contracting compliance organizations as well as researchers, academics, attorneys and officials from federal, state and local governments. Stay tuned for further details and registration information coming in early 2017.

(View NAFC Conference Page)

USDOL Wage & Hour Division – 2017 Prevailing Wage Seminars

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Join us at a Prevailing Wage Seminar in your region in 2017!

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 2017 are being scheduled in the following cities

  • Pittsburgh, PA – August 15-17, 2017

 

(Read More)

Recently Announced – 19th Annual NAFC Conference – Nashville, TN, Sept. 24 – 26, 2017

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

NAFC will be holding its 2017 Annual Conference in Music City U.S.A. – Nashville, Tennessee. The Conference will be held at the Sheraton Nashville Downtown Hotel, in the heart of the city. NAFC’s National Conference is attended by several hundred participants from across the nation, including representatives from labor organizations, fair contractors, fair contracting compliance organizations as well as researchers, academics, attorneys and officials from federal, state and local governments. Stay tuned for further details, early registration is now available at the link below.

(View NAFC Conference Page)