Building

The chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, Stephen E. Sandherr, released the following statement in response to the release of the Department of Labor new proposal on apprenticeship expansion, and the decision to exclude the construction industry from the Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Program:

Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia added construction jobs between May 2018 and May 2019, while construction employment increased in 31 states and D.C. from April to May, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of Labor Department data released today. Association officials said the new construction employment data underscores the need for new federal investments in career and technical education programs as well as immigration reform.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards (“OLMS”) recently made technical changes to the poster that federal contractors and subcontractors are required to display under Executive Order 13496.  The poster informs employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”).  The Department updated the poster to reflect a new telephone number for the National Labor Relations Board, the agency responsible for enforcing the NLRA, and to provide contact information for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing.  No other changes or updates were made at this time. 

On May 21, AGC submitted comments to the U. S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) in response to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) updating the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime regulations. In line with AGC’s recommendations to the WHD, this NPRM is the second step the DOL is undertaking to revisit the Obama administration overtime rule that dramatically increased the salary threshold for exempt employees and would have resulted in unintended consequences, particularly for small construction companies construction employers in lower-wage regions, and construction personnel. In contrast to the Obama rule, this new proposal would simply update the salary threshold using current wage data, projected to January 1, 2020. The result would boost the standard salary threshold for exempt employees from $455 to $679 per week (equivalent to $35,308 per year).