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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:

�鶹��ý of America has joined the �鶹��ý of Michigan in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in the Michigan Supreme Court in strong support of insurance coverage for construction defects. The brief focuses on the standard form of the General Commercial Liability (CGL) policy sold to �鶹��ý members across the United States. The Michigan Court of Appeals recently held that the policy provides no coverage for resulting damage to a project. The immediate question is whether the Michigan Supreme Court will grant an application for review of that ruling. If the court grants that application, the court will then entertain the merits of the case. The association’s brief urges the court to take the case and to overturn the court of appeals.

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.

Employers may be surprised to learn that the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board” or “NLRB”) just issued a unanimous decision invalidating an employer’s mandatory arbitration agreement that could be reasonably interpreted as preventing employees from filing charges with the Board. The June 18 Prime Healthcare decision analyzed the employer’s arbitration agreement using the relatively new Boeing Co. standard for evaluating facially neutral policies and rules that potentially interfere with employees’ protected rights, but fell on the side of the workers. The Prime Healthcare decision may require you to adjust your arbitration agreements.

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.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently announce that after June 14, 2019, www.WDOL.gov will be transitioning to https://beta.SAM.gov, which will become the new website for wage determination data.

On May 21, �鶹��ý 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 �鶹��ý’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).

Advises Caution in Selection and Execution of New Compliance Checks

On June 12, �鶹��ý submitted comments to the U. S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) in response to its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) updating the regulations governing regular rate requirements for the first time in more than 50 years. Regular rate requirements define what forms of payment employers include and exclude in the "time and one-half" calculation when determining workers' overtime rates. The NPRM focused primarily on clarifying whether certain kinds of perks, benefits, or other miscellaneous items must be included in the regular rate. Because these regulations have not been updated in decades, the proposal’s intent is to better define the regular rate for today's workplace practices.

Expands Employer and Employee Insurance Options