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Politics & Policy
US House Introduces Resolution Opposing DOL’s New Davis-Bacon Rule
ABC Slams OSHA’s Worker Walkaround Rule for Failing to Promote Workplace Health and Safety
State Off-Year Elections Deliver Losses To GOP Heading Into 2024
Safety
Utilize Software To Achieve Your Safety Goals
OSHA Extends Comment Period on OSHA Walkaround Proposed Rule to Nov. 13
ABC Expresses Serious Concerns to Congress About OSHA Worker Walkaround Rule
Events/Products/Programs
Nearly 350 ABC Leaders Gather in Washington for Annual Legislative Conference
ABC Members Rank Among ENR’s Top 400 Contractors
Trades Day: Industry Outreach Opportunity With Meaning
State/Local News
Ed Capodanno Honored by Delaware State Legislature
Election Update: ABC Staff and Members Elected in 2022
California Targets Workplace Cannabis Testing
Awards
ABC Congratulates 30 Members Awarded DOL’s 2023 HIRE Vets Medallion
ABC Honors 3 New Applicants With the AQC Credential in October
Graham Roofing Earns the AQC Credential in September
Legislation
ABC-Supported Legislation To Overturn the Northern Long-Eared Bat’s Endangered Species Listing Heads to President Biden’s Desk
ABC Advocates for Solutions to Workforce Shortage at U.S. House Committee Roundtable
Smucker Introduces the ABC-Supported Main Street Tax Certainty Act
Regulations
NLRB Extends Effective Date of the Joint Employer Final Rule to Feb. 26, 2024
DOL’s Unlawful Proposed Overtime Rule Will Disrupt Construction Workers’ Workplace Flexibility
ABC’s November Regulatory Roundup—Learn About the Latest Developments Affecting the Construction Industry
Workforce Development
Register Now for ABC’s Construction Inclusion Week Webinar Series
DOL High Road Workforce Development Program Map Snubs Nonunion Programs
LISTEN: How to Design an Effective Technology Adoption Strategy
In testimony June 18 before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, ABC General Counsel and shareholder with Littler Mendelson, P.C., Maurice Baskin said the Department of Labor’s (DOL) administration of the Davis-Bacon Act has, “hindered economic growth, increased the federal deficit and imposed an enormous paperwork burden on both contractors and the federal government.” The Davis-Bacon Act is an 80-year-old wage subsidy law administered by DOL that mandates “prevailing” wages for employees of contractors and subcontractors performing work on federally financed construction projects. In his testimony, Baskin focused on DOL’s dysfunctional wage survey process. “The department continues to use antiquated and outmoded wage and survey methods that guarantee inflated and erroneous wage determinations all over the country, inflating the cost of federal construction to taxpayers,” Baskin said. Baskin pointed out that the department continues to rely on wage surveys containing unacceptably low response rates instead of using sound statistical samples already made available through other government data collections. In recent years, the department also has violated its own rules by importing wage rates from labor markets hundreds of miles apart. The resulting wage determinations bear little relation to actual local wages in the areas surveyed, Baskin said. “ABC and others have repeatedly called on DOL to explore using alternative data to determine wage rates – such as data collected through the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics program,” Baskin said. “DOL has refused to make this correction to the wage survey process, and has not provided any rational explanation.” Baskin also talked about DOL’s failure to provide contractors with enough information to accurately determine work assignments for individual job classifications and the huge paperwork burden placed on contractors when submitting weekly certified payroll reports. Watch an archived video of the hearing here: http://edworkforcehouse.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=171