On October 25, the Senate voted 50-41 to confirm President Biden’s nominee to be the Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA. Doug Parker, formerly the chief of California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, as well as serving as deputy assistant secretary for policy at the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) under the Obama administration, was part of the Biden transition team on worker health and safety issues. He will become the first to fill the position since David Michaels left the agency in 2017. Doug’s confirmation could signal the beginning of more regulatory and enforcement activity within OSHA, which has been understood to be agency priority.
On October 27, the U.S. Occupational and Safety Administration (OSHA) officially signaled that it is moving closer to developing a national workplace heat standard. AGC previously testified against legislation requiring such a standard, citing the industry’s thorough, proactive work in this area and informed lawmakers that quickly establishing a one-size-fits-all national standard to address workplace heat exposure is unwarranted. In addition, AGC has pointed out how the Obama administration’s OSHA previously decided against issuing such a standard, giving existing agency authority to take enforcement action when heat hazards exist on the jobsite. AGC will work with its members, chapters, and coalition partners to respond to this proposal.
Addresses Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Provision
Only 14 states and the District of Columbia have added construction jobs since just before the start of the pandemic in February 2020, according to a new analysis of federal employment data released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials noted that widespread supply chain disruptions amid and the lack of a much-needed federal infrastructure bill have impeded the sector’s recovery.
The AGC Education and Research Foundation has funded the development of a series of construction case studies that can be used by faculty members in college and university construction education programs to supplement their primary instructional materials. The latest in this seres was completed in partnership with Developed by Alex Albert, Kevin Han, Edward Jaselskis, and Min Liu, North Carolina State University; Joe Polansky, Fred Smith Company; Korey Merritt, C. T. Wilson Construction Company; and David Duke, S&ME:
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, AGC 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 AGC 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 AGC 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.
AGC’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 AGC Georgia, and a $25,000 HBCU fund donation by Bob Bowen.