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Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) Joins ��ѻ��ý for Tour

On October 21, the ��ѻ��ý co-chaired Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) began a 13-state ad campaign targeting six House Democrats and nine House Republicans to press for passage of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan (physical) infrastructure bill, formally entitled the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The bill includes a five-year surface transportation reauthorization with record levels of investment for transportation construction, including more than $350 billion for roads and bridges. For more information on this ad campaign, click HERE.

��ѻ��ý Helps Construction Firms Break It Down

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (federal OSHA) has reportedly threatened to repeal several states’—Arizona, South Carolina and Utah—state OSHA plans because they have not adopted federal OSHA’s COVID-19 healthcare emergency temporary standard (ETS) issued on June 17. State plans are federal OSHA-approved workplace safety and health programs operated by individual states or U.S. territories. There are currently 22 state plans covering both private sector and state and local government workers. When federal OSHA issues a new standard, state plans usually have six months to adopt the new standard. State plans, however, have only 30 days to adopt an ETS. This situation between federal OSHA and state OSHA plan states could foreshadow how federal OSHA handles disputes that may be yet to come when it issues its broader COVID-19 Testing ETS impacting private employers with 100 or more employees.

On October 19, ��ѻ��ý met with the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to share a host of concerns about the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration’s (OSHA) draft emergency temporary standard (ETS). OSHA sent the draft ETS—the details of which remain unknown—to OMB for review on October 12, a signal that a final ETS could be issued within a matter of days or weeks. The OSHA ETS will require employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workers are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or tested for infection on at least a weekly basis. It should be noted, however, that ��ѻ��ý engaged outside legal counsel weeks ago to provide a legal memorandum that identifies the standards OSHA must meet to justify using the ETS process instead of the normal administrative procedures typically employed. After ��ѻ��ý reviews the final ETS, the association will measure it against its legal memorandum to determine whether a court challenge is warranted and evaluate our chances for success. No legal challenge can be successfully mounted until the ETS is released in final form.

��ѻ��ý’s 2021 Construction HR & Training Professionals Conference wrapped up Oct. 15 after two days of in-person education, sharing of best practices and networking in St. Louis, MO. The conference continues to be a must-attend event for human resources and training professionals in the construction industry.

Negotiators conducting collective bargaining between January and September of this year agreed to raise construction craft workers’ wage and fringe benefits by an average of 2.6 percent or $1.63 during the first contract year, according to the Construction Labor Research Council’s (CLRC) latest Settlements Report. These rates are comparable with increases granted in 2020, but CLRC projects slightly higher increases for the near future.

The 2021 CCC Gala, with a theme of “Hot Havana Nights” started with a goal of raising $100,000 for student education in the Construction industry. Within two hours the group met that goal and exceeded it times four including generous donations of $250,000 by Procore’s HBCU challenge fund, a $62,500 donation and new scholarship fund established with ��ѻ��ý Georgia, and a $25,000 HBCU fund donation by Bob Bowen.

Many employers are wondering about the extent to which they can incent employees and their dependents to receive the COVID-19 vaccine by adjusting medical plan eligibility, modifying medical plan premiums payable by employees, and/or excluding coverage of treatment of the coronavirus where a plan enrollee chooses not to receive the vaccine and then contracts the virus. In this article, Lockton provides thoughts on what’s permissible and what’s not, and views on best practices.

Releases New Myth v. Fact Document