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.

On Nov. 3, the Signatory Wall and Ceiling Contractors Alliance submitted comments in support of the Department of Labor’s proposed independent contractor rule that would rescind the prior Administration’s rule that made it easier to classify employees in the construction industry and across the economy as independent contractors. The proposed rule replaces this regulation with a well-understood standard ground in 60 years of judicial precedents that SWACCA urged the Labor Department to adopt because it is easier to apply and will make it harder for employers to claim their workers are independent contractors.

The National Labor Relations Board released a proposed rule to rescind and replace the Trump-era Board’s April 1, 2020, final rule revising election procedures under the NLRA. Specifically, Nov. 3’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking has three parts, each rescinding a corresponding portion of the NLRB’s April 2020 final rule.

This week, SWACCA concluded weeks of work to ensure the submission of three distinct comment letters in support of the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council’s proposed rule entitled, “Use of Project Labor Agreements for Federal Construction Projects” to implement President Biden’s February Executive Order creating a presumption that PLAs are to be used by federal agencies for large-scale construction projects for which the cost is estimated to be $35 million or more, subject to specified exemptions.

On Oct. 17, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation filed comments opposing a Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council proposed rule to block non-union workers from working on federal contracts. The rule requires federal agencies to impose Project Labor Agreements on contractors and employees who work on federal construction projects that will cost $35 million or more.

The Department of Labor published a final rule on Sept. 26 to rescind Trump-era Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Programs that marks the end of a four-year fight by SWACCA’s public policy team in Washington, D.C. This final rule will be effective on Nov. 25.