Other Senate Committees Must Act on Transit, Rail Programs

In April, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued updated COVID-19 FAQs related to contractor vaccine policies. The FAQs established that when vaccination is mandated by employers, adverse reactions related to employees receiving the vaccine are a recordable injury/illness, and, in some cases, may be recordable even when contractors only recommend, or encourage, employees receive the vaccine (for background, click here). On May 12, AGC put forth its concerns to OSHA. On May 21, OSHA issued a single FAQ stating that “DOL and OSHA, as well as other federal agencies, are working diligently to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations. OSHA does not wish to have any appearance of discouraging workers from receiving COVID-19 vaccination, and also does not wish to disincentivize employers’ vaccination efforts. As a result, OSHA will not enforce 29 CFR 1904’s recording requirements to require any employers to record worker side effects from COVID-19 vaccination through May 2022. We will reevaluate the agency’s position at that time to determine the best course of action moving forward.” This is a significant win not only for construction, but all other industry sectors required to maintain an OSHA 300 Log.

AGC of America’s Union Contractors Committee will hold its next quarterly virtual meeting on June 16, 2021, at 2:00 p.m. EASTERN Daylight Time. All interested AGC members and chapter staff are invited. The meeting is not open to nonmembers. The agenda will include updates from AGC staff and a roundtable discussion. The remaining agenda is under development.

The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) has decided to maintain its longstanding contract-bar doctrine, despite AGC-supported signals by the Board that changes would be coming.

Union contractors, labor representatives, and other stakeholders in the unionized sector of the construction and maintenance industry expressed continued but reduced optimism regarding growth in early 2021 as compared to early 2020, according to the 2021 Union Craft Labor Supply Study(link is external) recently released by The Association of Union Constructors (TAUC) and the Construction Labor Research Council (CLRC).

Learn more at July 20-22 virtual conference, free to AGC members The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed an update to its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Construction General Permit (CGP) covering stormwater discharges from construction activities. EPA has also released a proposed 2022 CGP Fact Sheet, which includes a summary table of some of the changes. Forty-seven states use EPA’s permit as a model for their own permits, so its impact extends beyond the three states (New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Massachusetts), territories and other areas that use it exclusively.

Texas and Louisiana Have Worst Job Losses Since February 2020, While Utah and Idaho Top Gainers; Illinois and New Hampshire Add the Most in April, as Texas and Iowa Posts Biggest Monthly Losses

On May 20, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released a new initiative to permit, on an experimental basis, contractors to utilize geographic, economic, or other hiring preferences on federal-aid highway projects. This “local hire” initiative will be carried out as a pilot program for a period of 4 years (unless extended) under FHWA’s existing experimental contracting authority. AGC is broadly opposed to local hire preference policies. After yesterday’s pilot program release, AGC CEO Steve Sandherr stated, in part: “[T]he problem with local hire programs, however, is that they solve the symptom and not the problem...too many communities have defunded their career and technical education programs and as a result there are often too few local workers with any interest in construction careers or basic skills that would make them qualified to be hired.”

In late April, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued updated COVID-19 FAQs related to contractor vaccine policies. Consistent with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) messaging, contractors have been recommending—and in some instances mandating—employees receive the vaccine. OSHA’s new interpretation of recordability stemming from adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine when contractors mandate employees take the vaccine, or simply recommend it, has the potential to deter vaccination efforts. AGC is not opposing the requirement for contractors that—at their own discretion—mandate employee vaccination to record adverse reactions on their OSHA 300 Log. However, AGC is concerned when construction owners or clients pass the mandate down to contractors to vaccinate their employees.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) finalized its recent proposal to officially withdraw a Trump administration final rule clarifying the standard for employee versus independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The previous final rule originally was to be effective on March 8, 2021. However, a recent proposal delayed that date to allow the agency “the opportunity to review and consider the questions of law, policy, and fact raised by the rule[s]."