A key political leader in Texas is set to propose a plan to build on sweeping education reforms passed in the state two years ago. House Speaker Joe Straus this week announced he will propose additional resources for counseling of students. This comes after some lawmakers questioned whether the state is doing enough to make sure students and their parents are equipped to take full advantage of changes made under House Bill 5, which created multiple pathways to a high school diploma.Specifically, Speaker Straus will ask lawmakers to approve stipends for counselors designed to entice those educators to pursue additional training in their field. Doing so would enable them to better serve students who now have to navigate the more complicated system of multiple pathways to graduation.
Ethical operators in construction do all they can to ensure their craftsmen and women are extremely safe on their jobsites. Many companies go as far as maintaining an ongoing relationship with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, so that the industry and the government can be proactive, instead of reactive, when it comes to the safety of people on jobsites across America. While some companies are skeptical that kind of arrangement, other firms have found it is a positive way to stay ahead of potential problems that increase liability and make them less attractive employment options.
January 02, 2015
A new report finds building costs are rising faster than they have in the past six years. The report from the construction consulting firm Rider Levett Bucknall said that the company’s index of construction costs in the United States increased 1.66 percent between July and October, which is the biggest three-month increase since the beginning of 2008.Perhaps more importantly, the report found that construction starts in 2015 will rise about 10 percent – almost double the estimated growth rate in 2014. "General optimism with the construction sector has continued to rise," the report said. Rider Levett Bucknall keeps track of new commercial, residential, and other types of construction as well.
December 29, 2014
A man who had been homeless on the streets of Sacramento, California, says he has the local NBA team to thank for his new career in construction, which has led to an already improved quality of life. Eric Martinez is one of the heavy equipment operators helping to build the new downtown arena for the Sacramento Kings.As part of the construction, the team partnered with local leaders to promote careers in the building trades.The team's Community Workforce Pipeline - a program launched earlier this year - is designed specifically to help those in need transition into construction careers. In a news release, the team said, "The Apprenticeship Program is an unprecedented collaboration of several organizations...
December 24, 2014
There’s almost nothing partisan or ideological about trying to stop companies from cheating taxpayers and their workers, which is exactly what happens when some firms misclassify their employees. As our readers know, worker misclassification happens when a company pretends its employees are subcontractors with the intent of avoiding payroll taxes and benefits like health insurance. Unions call it “payroll fraud.” Many of us just call it cheating, plain and simple.The fact that this is a bipartisan issue became extra clear this past week following our report on new efforts in the Texas Legislature to try to rein in the practice, which has rightly been called “a scourge” and “a cancer” in the construction industry. It happens in other industries as well but it is especially rampant in construction.Previous legislative attempts to deal with this in Texas have had mixed success. Now, a new bill has been filed in the Texas House.
December 15, 2014
Far too often, construction companies cheat taxpayers and their workers by pretending their employees are independent subcontractors when, by law, they should be paid as employees. It’s a practice known as worker misclassification. Some ethical contractors have called it a “cancer that is eating at the heart of our industry.”
December 08, 2014
Sweeping education reforms passed by the Texas Legislature in 2013 will be a great help to business leaders in Houston as they embark on an unprecedented push to promote “middle skills” jobs. Those are well-paying jobs that, as the Construction Citizen team has been telling you, require more than a high school diploma but less than a degree from a four-year college or university. It’s estimated that a whopping 40 percent of jobs in the greater Houston area fit that definition.A huge piece of that education reform package, known as House Bill 5, was the creation of multiple pathways for students to earn their high school diploma. Among the options students and parents can now choose from is a career in the blue collar trades like construction.
November 25, 2014
The Houston region, just like many other areas of the country, faces a paradox when it comes to matching people with the right jobs. But the challenge in Houston is exacerbated in a way that other places would love. There are so many jobs available that employers simply can’t keep up. The Construction Citizen team has written many times about the skills gap that leads to a situation where there are simultaneously plenty of openings for “middle-skills” jobs while there are lots of unemployed and under-employed people. Middle-skills jobs, by the way, are positions that require more training than a high school diploma, but less than a four-year degree from a university.The Greater Houston Partnership, the area’s largest business group, recently put a focus on this portion of the workforce. They’re now moving in this direction for a pretty straightforward reason: the one thing that could bring the region’s rapidly growing economy to a screeching halt is a lack of skilled workers, GHP President and CEO Bob Harvey told a crowd of about 300 gathered at the University of Houston last week.
November 18, 2014
An astounding 83 percent of construction firms around the nation are having trouble finding enough workers and the numbers in Texas are even worse, according to a new survey conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America.AGC surveyed 1,086 companies in late August and early September and said not only were the vast majority of them struggling to find craft workers, but 61% said the same about recruitment for key professional positions. Drilling down into the Texas numbers, 90 percent of construction companies faced serious challenges in finding enough craft professionals and half of them are quickly losing workers to other industries.
November 11, 2014
Rowdy behavior on construction jobsites is by no means a new phenomenon. Any employer who’s been through litigation stemming from sexual or racial harassment on a jobsite is keenly aware of that. Informing your managers of what to be on the lookout for and what’s completely unacceptable are key.Some of the types of harassment now generating litigation against business owners are changing. Employers need to know that they can’t simply dismiss claims as frivolous just because the harassment takes on a form they might not have expected.During a recent employment law conference hosted by K&S Insurance Agency in the Dallas area, attorney Daniel Ramirez of Monty & Ramirez LLP told a room full of employers from the construction industry and others about the changing face of harassment on jobsites.
November 04, 2014
