Department of Labor issues final rule on the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts, which covers labor standards that apply to federal and federally assisted construction projects
Aug. 8’s announcement makes some improvements but critically misses an opportunity to improve the wage determination process and further burdens overregulated construction contractors building and upgrading the nation’s infrastructure.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Enacted in December 2022, the PWFA requires covered entities to provide reasonable accommodations to a worker’s known limitation related to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, unless the accommodation will cause the employer undue hardship.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration published a proposed rule to revise its personal protective equipment standard for construction to explicitly require that PPE must fit properly to protect workers from workplace hazards.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced a final rule that will require employers in designated high-hazard industries, like construction, to electronically submit injury and illness information to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
At its May 31 meeting, the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health adopted the recommendations of its Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Task Group on key elements for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s heat injury and illness prevention standard.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration held a meeting of its National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health on Jan. 10 to hear updates from Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Jim Frederick and a report from NACOSH’s Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Work Group.
On Jan. 5, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission released the text of a soon-to-be-published proposed rule banning non-compete clauses in employment contracts that is expected to impact one in five U.S. workers—or 30 million Americans. The proposal makes it an unfair method of competition under the Federal Trade Commission Act for an employer to enter into or attempt to enter into a non-compete clause with a worker, to maintain a non-compete clause with a worker or to represent to a worker that he or she is subject to a non-compete clause.
In Dec. 23’s Federal Register, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council announced an extension – from Jan. 13 to Feb. 13 – of the comment period for its proposed rule to require certain federal contractors to disclose information regarding their greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related financial risk and set science-based targets to reduce their GHG emissions. The rule implements elements of President Biden’s May 20, 2021, Executive Order 14030, “Climate-Related Financial Risk.”
SWACCA’s public policy team is pleased that another multi-year advocacy campaign has ended in success. Since the summer of 2020, SWACCA has been at the forefront of an effort with its allies in the Construction Employers of America and its union partners to reverse regulations that negatively altered the analysis trustees of ERISA plans must use when assessing plan investments.
As California works to finalize a permanent COVID-19 worker protection rule, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health declined to include a provision in the rule requiring employers to pay workers who take virus-related time off.