Archive for category: News

By Jordanne Waldschmidt | Originally posted on www.equipmentworld.com

Originally posted on www.randrmagonline.com

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), a steering committee member of the Construction Industry Safety Coalition (CISC), released the following statement on CISC’s letter sent Sept. 27, 2021 to James Frederick, acting assistant secretary of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), voicing concerns related to OSHA’s forthcoming COVID-19 vaccination and testing Emergency Temporary Standard, which will apply to employers with 100 or more employees as required by President Biden’s Path Out of the Pandemic COVID-19 Action Plan.

“Because OSHA’s COVID-19 vaccination and testing ETS is expected to be the most far-reaching standard ever issued by the agency, it is imperative that OSHA listen to input from the construction industry, which employs 7.4 million individuals,” said Ben Brubeck, ABC vice president of regulatory, labor and state affairs. “Despite the efforts of a range of stakeholders, vaccine hesitancy remains an ongoing, complicated reality in countless industries. How the ETS is crafted will have significant, lasting impacts by driving workers away from larger firms and disrupting construction projects without raising the vaccination rate.

“Our key areas of concern are workforce shortages that would be exacerbated by the ETS, employer and employee obligations for vaccinations and testing, paperwork burdens, recordability of adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine, cost of paid time off for vaccinations and adverse reactions, and availability of testing kits. The COVID-19 pandemic has already created and accelerated a host of challenges for the construction industry, including a skilled workforce shortage, rising material costs, supply chain disruptions, jobsite shut-downs, additional health and safety protocols and new government regulations. The forthcoming ETS only adds to this long list of concerns.

“ABC continues to encourage construction industry stakeholders to implement effective COVID-19 safety plans and to get vaccinated, because ensuring healthy and safe work environments for employees is a top priority of ABC and its members. ABC is philosophically opposed to federal mandates that undermine the desired policy outcome. ABC plans to be fully engaged in the forthcoming OSHA ETS rule and is evaluating legal options on compliance.”

On Sept. 24, ABC, as a steering committee member of the Coalition for Workplace Safety, also sent a letter to OSHA Acting Assistant Secretary James Frederick, stating that OSHA should consider questions and seek written input from stakeholders before issuing any ETS. To do otherwise invites avoidable implementation challenges and costs that would undermine achieving the goals of the ETS.

By Christopher Ruvo | Originally posted on www.asicentral.com

The PRO Act, a major labor reform proposal, has caused concern in the promotional products industry.

Proponents of the PRO Act are trying to advance aspects of the sweeping, potentially historic labor reform legislation without passing the full act itself – something that could impact the employer-employee relationship across industries.

Members of Congress that support the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), who are overwhelmingly Democrats, are looking to move some tenants of the bill forward through special rules related to the federal budget.

In particular, they’re attempting to enact provisions that would impose civil penalties for so-called unfair labor practices (ULPs) and to establish new ULPs. These PRO Act pieces would be components of a broader attempt by Democrats to pass a $3.5 trillion spending plan through a process called “budget reconciliation.”

Budget reconciliation allows for certain measures tied to federal spending to be passed with a simple majority vote. PRO Act proponents are attempting to go this route because even though the legislation passed in the Democrat-controlled House earlier this year, it has been stymied in the 100-member Senate where effectively 60 votes are required to overcome a filibuster and pass bills into law.

The Senate is split 50-50 between Democrats (or independents who caucus with them) and Republicans. The GOP opposes the PRO Act. Reconciliation would allow Democrats to pass the bill with their 50-person group and Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote.

Still, getting the full PRO Act passed by reconciliation appears to be unlikely given strict rules – enforced by the Senate Parliamentarian – on what’s allowed to be approved through the process, according to legal experts. Getting a few pieces of it onto the books, however, may be more feasible. And that’s just what Democrats are lining up to do by including it in the multi-trillion dollar spending plan that could soon go through its own budget reconciliation process.

New Civil Penalties

Legislative language released Sept. 8 would create new civil penalties under the National Labor Relations Act that “fundamentally change its nature from a ‘make whole’ remedial statute into a punitive one,” reported legal intelligence source JD Supra.

“As introduced, the reconciliation bill would add fines of up to $50,000 per violation for ULPs under the NLRA,” JD Supra continued. “Where an employer commits a ULP by discriminating or retaliating against an employee for engaging in protected activity, or where an employee is discharged or suffers ‘serious economic harm,’ these fines would be doubled to $100,000 per violation if the employer has committed a similar ULP within the last five years.”

What amount to new ULPs beyond what are contained in the Act are also part of the provisions that could be considered through budget reconciliation. These prohibit things like permanently replacing a striking worker, locking out employees, and entering into or enforcing any prohibition on joint, class or collective action, among other things. “This last provision would essentially ban the use of arbitration in employment cases for unionized and non-union employers alike,” JD Supra reported.

Company directors and officers could be held personally liable for violations.

“Under current law, the fine you pay for a parking ticket is greater than the fine companies pay for violating workers’ right to organize a union,” wrote Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., in a July release supporting the provisions’ inclusion in the budget process. “Creating financial penalties for unlawful anti-union activity will finally deter employers from violating the law and will better protect workers’ rights.”

Trade groups, such as the construction industry’s Associated Builders and Contractors, oppose having the provisions in the reconciliation proposal, saying that enacting them will hurt businesses.

“Reports have indicated that the bill could seek to insert harmful labor provisions in the reconciliation package, which could include increased monetary penalties for employers that ‘interfere’ with workers’ union rights, leading to unwarranted and frivolous lawsuits that could have a devastating impact on construction employers,” opined Kristen Swearingen, ABC vice president of legislative and political affairs, in a report from Construction Dive.

What About the PRO Act’s Proposals on Freelancers?

What does not appear to be included in the reconciliation attempt are parts of the PRO Act that would, according to critics, largely wipe out independent contractor status under most scenarios and compel companies across industries in the U.S. to reclassify such contractors as employees.

Those proposals caused significant concern in the promotional products industry when they came to light in early 2021. Some promo professionals believe enacting the PRO Act’s independent contractor rules could exponentially drive up industry firms’ labor costs, making companies less competitive, and/or compel companies to part ways with many of those currently classified as independent contractors, leading to a rash of hard-working promo professionals being put out of work.

While certain freelancers, such as some rideshare drivers, are in favor of the PRO Act, other freelancers, including many in the writing community, have been loud critics as they worry the bill will eradicate their livelihood and rob them of the relative independence they have in their work life.

Writing earlier this year for pro-socialist publication Jacobin, labor lawyer Brandon Magner said the PRO Act would not kill freelancing or cause damage to freelancers.

“It would only affect the analysis of employee versus independent contractor status for the purposes of the National Labor Relations Board,” Magner wrote. “Put simply, the relevant question is whether certain workers possess rights under Section 7 of the [National Labor Relations Act], which guarantees employees (and employees only) the right to strike, collectively bargain, and engage in various other ‘concerted activities’ for ‘mutual aid or protection’…”

Magner said the Act’s proposals on freelance work “would not change a worker’s employment status for the purposes of state laws, such as those involving minimum wage, overtime, unemployment compensation or various benefit schemes. Thus, a worker could feasibly be classified as an employee with unionization rights under the NLRA while still qualifying as an independent contractor under said state laws.”

Some freelancers aren’t buying that line, though.

“Union proponents of the new bill, as well as politicians beholden to the powerful groups, insist that it’s only about expanding the people who can be in unions,” Erik Sherman, a freelance business, economics, finance and tech journalist, wrote for Forbes. “Not if you look at the evidence… The result would be to outlaw millions of independent contractors (probably about 10 million at current IRS estimates of actual ongoing business owners), presumably clearing out people who might compete with union members.”

By Robyn Griggs Lawrence | Originally posted on www.constructiondive.com

John Mingione, principal of New York City-based Omnibuild, has worn a lot of hats since he founded his construction management firm in 2003 — but never, until this year, has he needed a detective’s fedora. As Mingione doles out jobs to subcontractors because Omnibuild is short on workers, he’s keeping a close watch to ensure the subs can maintain adequate staffing.

“I keep my ear close to the ground, trying to spread the wealth around and not put too many eggs in one basket,” he said.

In Los Angeles, Landmark Construction founder Ezra Laniado — also struggling to attract labor — is working on his poker face. He has found “the easiest way, which is the hardest way” to get and keep workers on his jobsites is to pay them more, but he has to be careful not to appear too desperate or they’ll ask for even higher wages.

“It’s a delicate balance,” he said. “We have to be very foxy.”

The construction industry’s inability to attract and retain talent, a major problem for more than a decade, has escalated into a full-blown crisis since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. With only 80% of the 1 million construction workers who lost their jobs at the start of lockdowns returning, according to CNN, Associated Builders and Contractors announced the industry needs to hire 430,000 workers this year and 1 million more over the next two years to keep pace with demand. Construction is competing for those workers with desperate companies from every other industry in a labor shortage Chamber of Commerce CEO Suzanne Clark called “a national economic emergency.”

Fighting for talent

Though exacerbated by the pandemic, the industry’s talent drain started long before anyone had heard of COVID-19. As contractors have been forced into ever-more creative methods of finding and holding onto workers, industry leaders have formed collectives to study and address the problem. With an aging workforce (the median age of construction workers is 41) and a monthly turnover rate of 5.2% compared with 3.6% over all industries, construction has some hurdles to overcome.

“It’s a war for talent. It’s really bad out there,” said Branka Minic, CEO of Building Talent Foundation (BTF), a coalition of the nation’s largest residential building companies that advances education, training and career progression for young and underrepresented workers. “Everybody is screaming for people, not only in our industry. We need to fight for every person and be much more agile in our efforts.”

When Minic took the helm of BTF two years ago, she set out to align education and training programs with the industry’s needs and partner with organizations that can help BTF reach new populations, including schools, churches, foster care agencies and community groups ranging from veterans to Girl Scouts.

“We’re definitely diversifying the industry,” Minic said. “That’s one of our goals, obviously, to open new sources of talented people and make sure they have good opportunities.”

Higher wages

Paying higher salaries would appear to be the easiest way out of this crisis, but that becomes more expensive every day. The reservation wage, the lowest average wage Americans without college degrees will accept for new jobs, has increased by 26% over the past year, to $29.56, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. And this trend is far from over: a Willis Towers Watson survey found wage increases for production and manual labor workers rising from 2.5% this year to 2.8% in 2022.

Preferred Contractors Association Chief Marketing Officer Hadar Raz has seen construction companies raise salaries by as much as 10% in particularly hard-hit regions.

“All industries have common practices that work, and the construction industry has to first get to those,” Raz said. “A basic one is to start increasing salaries. That’s the first step.”

The next step, Raz said, is appealing to younger people by adopting worker-friendly practices common in other industries, including bonuses, flexible schedules and career training. “You can either give people a job or a career path. We need to show people this is a career and a profession, a trade they can always hold onto.”

What millennials want

Joe Flanagan, senior employment advisor at career matchmaker VelvetJobs, said more than 50% of millennials will remain in a job if they see potential career advancement, making training programs and reward systems a vital part of company structure. These programs, Flanagan said, “confirm to employees that they are valued for their contribution.”

Millennials won’t tolerate military-style hierarchies in which “the foreman is god and everyone does what he says,” said Carol Sigmond, a New York City-based partner in the construction practice group at law firm Greenspoon Marder. Younger workers are demanding a more collaborative approach, she said, “and it’s not so clear to me there’s not going to be some value in that.”

To attract younger workers, Sigmond said, contractors must stop treating construction as itinerate work. “The work is going to have to become steadier. The notion that people will work for nine months a year and spend three months sitting on a beach somewhere has to change. They can be training and prepping for the next year — but they must have steadier employment.”

“Construction, like any industry, pays people based on the value of the skills they bring to the table,” said Rolf Bax, chief human resources officer at career resource Resume.io. “It can be hard finding general laborers for sites because so many companies treat these people as disposable. If you make it known that people who want to learn new skills will be given an opportunity to do so, you will start to see more people applying.”

Attracting new workers

Younger workers are motivated less by money and more by what companies can do for them. They’re drawn to and stay with purpose-led companies with a human-centric approach, said Pat Wadors, chief talent officer at construction technology firm Procore Technologies and former senior vice president of LinkedIn’s Global Talent Organization.

Contractors need to get clear about their organizations’ purpose before creating what Wadors calls an “employee value proposition,” a promise to pay fair wages, treat everyone with respect and nurture an inclusive culture. “This creates clarity as you attract talent,” she said. “And employees will hold you accountable for that promise like never before.”

For Sacramento-based Otto Construction, that means focusing less on what skills people bring to the table and more on how their personality and work ethic would fit with the company’s culture of honesty, integrity and compassion. “Construction is great, but it’s not rocket science,” said CEO Allison Otto. “If you’re willing to learn and want to be part of our team, we’ll teach you how to do it. Our culture is so important. If we find someone who’s a good fit for it, we’ll mentor them and bring them up.”

“Culture is not something you can apply a dollar amount to — it’s not a health benefit,” said Laura Newbrough, human resources director at virtual design and construction company Zelus, which hires almost exclusively based on employee referrals and has a retention rate of more than 90%. “Culture is about leading and teaching and allowing people to learn on their own and try new things. It has always been the most important thing to me. I’m constantly checking in — how is the culture, how is the culture, what is a cultural threat?”