Republican leaders of three congressional committees sent a letter July 15 to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council, and other Obama administration officials, requesting that the proposed guidance and regulations for the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order 13673 (known as the Blacklisting EO) be withdrawn. This letter was sent a few days after the DOL and the FAR Council announced a two-week extension of the notice and comment period for the Blacklisting proposal to August 11.  

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released an interpretation letter July 6 which states that the use of kinesiology tape to treat a work-related injury no longer needs to be recorded as medical treatment.

No matter what position you’re in, or how many years of experience you have, there’s always something new to learn to make you the best leader you can be. ABC’s Leadership Week, which will be held Nov. 8-12 in San Diego, Calif., will provide a variety of opportunities for current and emerging leaders to grow both professionally and personally. 

ABC will bring together construction users and contractors Oct. 8-9 to discuss the industry’s safety, quality and workforce issues during its third annual Users Summit in St. Pete, Fla. This exclusive event is limited to 150 participants and includes a mix of users and chief executives and senior management from ABC contractor members in the health care and industrial markets.

Every person working on a construction project deserves to work under a fair contract where their interests are represented early on and risk is fairly allocated to help reduce costs. Whether working at the office or from the road, the ConsensusDocs platform provides instant access to your contract documents, a personalized dashboard and an easy-to-use system to locate recent projects, edit contracts, review changes, or start a new contract. ABC member, Carole Bionda, past ABC National Chair, and Vice President and General Counsel for Nova Group, Inc., explains why she chose to use ConsensusDocs and how it has helped her business.

ABC members have more time to respond to a proposal implementing President Obama’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order 13673, known as the “blacklisting” EO, signed July 31, 2014. The public comment deadline for a proposed rulemaking issued May 28, by the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council and proposed guidance by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) implementing the blacklisting EO has been extended from July 27 to August 11.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced July 9 a 60-day temporary enforcement policy of its Confined Spaces in Construction standard, effective Aug. 3. The announcement postpones full enforcement of the new standard to Oct. 2 in order to allow for additional time to train and acquire the equipment necessary to comply with the new rule.

The way you buy your Autodesk software is changing. After Jan. 31, 2016, new perpetual licenses of most individual Autodesk® software will no longer be available for purchase.

During a controversial budget session, Wisconsin significantly reformed its prevailing wage laws with the help of the ABC Wisconsin Chapter which organized a coalition of local chambers of commerce, school districts, small businesses, and municipal utilities to repeal prevailing wage requirements on all Wisconsin public works projects except those built by the state of Wisconsin and state highway projects. 

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have issued two surveys soliciting comments from the construction industry on the potential use of project labor agreements (PLA) on projects in Missouri and Texas.