News

AGC's Open Shop Committee will meet during AGC’s 92nd Annual Convention on March 21 at 1:30 p.m.  The meeting will feature an update on labor law matters relevant to open-shop contractors and a roundtable discussion of local developments, covering such topics as project labor agreements, card check and bannering.
AGC’s upcoming webinar, “The Davis-Bacon and Related Acts: The Ins and Outs of Federal Prevailing Wage Law,” has been pre-approved to offer three general recertification credits by the HR Certification Institute (HRCI), the internationally recognized leader in human resource certification. 
On November 17, 2010, three federal government agencies, together, issued an amendment to the interim final regulations of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, allowing group health plans to switch insurance companies and still maintain their grandfathered status.  Prior to the amendment, group health plans that switched insurance companies lost their grandfathered status under the Act.
On November 9, 2010, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published final regulations implementing Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA).  GINA prohibits employers from making employment decisions on the basis of genetic information and family history and also prohibits employers from acquiring genetic information and family medical history regarding applicants, employees and former employees.
A new web-based toolkit that helps guide employers through the process of hiring military veterans is now available. The free toolkit was created to assist and educate employers who are looking to include veterans and wounded soldiers in their recruitment and hiring initiatives.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) on November 10 decided to delay the effective date of a final standard requiring additional disclosures about employer participation in multi-employer pension plans. 
More than 150 attended the 9th Annual HR Professionals Conference and the 4th Annual Training & Development Conference, which ran back-to-back with a joint keynote session last month in Scottsdale, Arizona.
On September 21, AGC submitted comments to a July 23, 2010, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The comments were in response to plans to implement affirmative action and nondiscrimination obligations of contractors and subcontractors, and to evaluate the affirmative action provisions under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act.
On October 12, 2010, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that it will defer, for one year, a health care reform law requirement that employers report the cost of coverage on employees' W-2 wage and income statements.  The postponement was made in order to provide employers the time necessary to make changes to payroll systems and procedures in accordance with the new reporting requirement.
[caption id="attachment_1172" align="alignleft" width="150" caption=" "][/caption] With the downturn in the availability of commercial work, many construction contractors are bidding more on federal and federally-assisted work and having to comply with the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts. The application of the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts to all projects funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) has also left many contractors uncertain about the requirements of federal prevailing wage laws and the consequences of non-compliance. AGC is offering two resources to help contractors comply with the requirements of this sometimes complicated law.