The New York Independent Budget Office (IBO) has released a revised report on the impact prevailing wage requirements would have on affordable housing projects built with the 421a property tax break. The 421a tax credit had been the subject of extensive negotiations in the past months. In Jan. 2016, the parties involved announced they could not reach a compromise, killing the tax credit and jeopardizing Mayor de Blasio’s plans for 80,000 affordable housing units for New York City residents. The agency had initially estimated that prevailing wage requirements would add $2.8 billion to the initiative’s total, bu

In its Jan. 29 decision in Guardsmark, LLC, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) extended its restriction on captive-audience meetings in the run up to a mail ballot union election by an additional 24 hours. Captive-audience meetings occur when an employer holds a group campaign meeting with employee voters during work hours to oppose union representation. The NLRB prohibits these meetings in the 24 hours leading up to the “scheduled time for conducting” a manual election; however, the NLRB had not imposed a similar preliminary ban in mail ballot elections until the Guardsmark decision.&

Learn how to contractually effectuate Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) and lean tools in a free webinar from ABC business partner ConsensusDocs titled The State of the Art in IPD Contracting: The New ConsensusDocs 300 and How to Contract for IPD & Lean. Contracts that match your intentions of actually encouraging collaboration and communication are more likely to achieve success. Much has been learned and refined during the past five years, and ConsensusDocs just released an entirely updated standard IPD agreement and new IPD Joining Agreement. You will hear from some of the lead drafters of the new ConsensusDocs 300 IPD Agreement and 396 Joining agreement. The webinar will be held

On Feb. 4, the West Virginia Legislature sent two important bills to the governor’s desk. The House of Delegates passed ABC-supported right-to work legislation, the “Workplace Freedom Act” (SB 1) by a vote of 54-46, while the state Senate approved legislation repealing the state’s prevailing wage law along party lines. The measures were intensely debated in both chambers in the weeks leading up to the votes. West Virginia’s prevailing wage law was mired in controversy following the passage of a reform bill in 2015 and ABC’s West Virginia Chapter has been a vocal supporter of repealing the state’s prevailing wage.

ABC has added Southern California Chapter member Christopher White of Tutton Insurance Services, Inc. to the Beam Club Hall of Fame level.

On Jan. 29, 2016, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced a proposed rule expanding the data that is collected from certain employers on the Employer Information Report (EEO-1). Currently, certain federal contractors with 50-99 employees and private employers with more than 100 employees must report annually the number of individuals they employ by job category and race, ethnicity, and sex on the EEO-1. Under the proposed rule federal contractors and private employers with 100 or more employees would have to report pay data and hours worked on the EEO-1 in addition to the current reporting requirements, beginning on Sept. 30, 2017. Employers would report this inform

On Jan. 20, ABC submitted comments in response to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration proposed rule which seeks to update the equal opportunity regulations that implement the National Apprenticeship Act of 1937 by amending 29 CFR Part 30. Current regulations prohibit discrimination in registered apprenticeship programs on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, and sex. The proposed rule updates the equal opportunity standards to include age (40 or older), genetic information, sexual orientation and disability among the protected base that cannot be discriminated a

In 2016, Construction Executive magazine will begin publishing 10 print issues per year and providing two double issues—January/February and July/August—as a way to streamline production and keep up with association publishing trends. The goal is to maintain robust print content while enhancing the magazine’s digital and social media channels for an increasingly mobile audience.

West Virginia State Senator Sue Cline (R-Wyoming) was sworn into office on Jan. 25 following a Jan. 22 court decision requiring Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin (D- W.Va.) to appoint a Republican to fill a vacant seat. Sen. Cline was appointed to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Sen. Daniel Hall (R-Wyoming), who was elected as a Democrat but switched parties prior to resigning.

ABC is reminding its contractor member firms that their 2015 Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Form 300A work-related injury and illness log summaries must be posted in a visible spot on all construction sites from Feb. 1 through April 30.