The AGC Labor and Employment Law Council held its 36th Annual Construction Labor Law Symposium on June 10-11, 2021. The event was held virtually for the first time. The Council is a group of attorneys who regularly represent AGC members and chapters in labor and employment matters, and its annual symposium is for such attorneys and chapter labor staff.
On June 17, President Biden signed into law legislation recognizing Juneteenth National Independence Day, June 19, as a legal public holiday. Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S. and commemorates the date in 1865 when the Union army arrived in Galveston, TX, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation two years after issuance. The new law deems Juneteenth the eleventh “federal holiday” in the nation.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) posted updated and expanded technical assistance related to the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing questions arising under the federal equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws. The EEOC also posted a new resource for job applicants and employees, explaining how federal employment discrimination laws protect workers during the pandemic. These publications are provided to help employees and employers understand their rights and responsibilities at work during the pandemic.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has posted updated and expanded technical assistance related to the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing questions arising under the federal equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws. The EEOC also posted a new resource for job applicants and employees, explaining how federal employment discrimination laws protect workers during the pandemic. These publications are provided to help employees and employers understand their rights and responsibilities at work during the pandemic.
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).
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]."
Government- Mandated Project Labor Agreements & Local Hire Requirements
After delaying the opening of the 2019 EEO-1 Component 1 Data Collections on May 8, 2020, in light of the COVID-19 public health emergency, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced that the 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 Component 1 data collection is now open. The EEO-1 is an annual survey that requires all private employers with 100 or more employees and federal government contractors or first-tier subcontractors with 50 or more employees and a contract/subcontract of $50,000 or more to file the EEO-1 report.