Now that the state is moving forward with a targeted crackdown on the practice of worker misclassification, which some in the construction industry have called “a cancer,” lawmakers are going to work through the summer to figure out what more they can do when they reconvene in a regular session in 2015.As you may recall, the Texas Legislature in 2013 passed a bill to root out misclassification on public works projects. While many see that as a step in the right direction, it doesn't go nearly far enough to address the problem. As our readers well know, worker misclassification happens when a company pretends its employees are independent subcontractors when by law the workers qualify as employees and therefore should receive benefits and have their taxes deducted and matched. While there are many legitimate uses for subcontractors, the abuse happens when a company does this with the intent of skirting the law and avoiding payroll taxes.Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, has now instructed House members to “examine the issue of misclassifying employees as independent contractors [and the effect this practice has] on workers, employers, income tax withholding, and the unemployment insurance system. Review current statutory deterrents, including those required by HB 2015 (83R), and make recommendations for changes if necessary.”
When talk of labor shortages has been floated in the past, it has often been customary for those sounding the alarm to be accused of “crying wolf”. But the evidence is rolling in from around the nation – and the world, really – that the problem is as real as it's ever been and it will only intensify if current trends hold. There are some industry leaders, however, who are figuring out ways to combat these workforce issues in ways designed to keep their businesses out of a position like this again in the future.Houston Public Radio recently quoted AGC of America Chief Economist and Construction Citizen Blogger Ken Simonson, who told the station that the oil and gas sector is driving most of Texas’s new construction activity: “The drilling itself counts as mining, but every one of those well sites requires some kind of site preparation, a storage pond, housing for the pumping and processing machinery. We’re also seeing a lot of rail construction to bring natural gas liquids or oil from the fields to the refineries.”That activity in the oil and gas sector sets up a fierce competition for the folks in commercial construction. One of our resident experts, Pat Kiley, has repeatedly pointed out there is a real war for talent in this environment.
February 06, 2014
In Texas political races all over the state, candidates are being grilled about what they think of sweeping education reforms passed by the legislature last year. While there is pretty much universal agreement that the big reductions in standardized testing were a positive step, there is controversy about changes to graduation requirements that create multiple paths to a high school diploma. The idea, essentially, is that not all kids will go to college so the state will now promote both college readiness as well as career readiness.The business community is not monolithic, so there are some such as the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and the Texas Association of Business as well as some minority rights groups which want to roll back those reforms.
January 28, 2014
Construction companies across Texas that work on public projects are on notice now that the targeted worker misclassification crackdown passed by the legislature in 2013 has taken effect.HB 2015 “Worker Classification” was signed into law on June 14, 2013, and became effective on January 1, 2014. This law is considered by many to be a good first step in the fight against the problem that is especially rampant in residential and commercial construction. But, advocates for workers and for a fair marketplace understand that much more needs to be done in the years to come if the playing field is going to be leveled so that ethical companies will be able to compete. While putting these penalties in place on public projects will help in the commercial sector, nothing at all will change in residential construction.
January 14, 2014
In what looks to many like a slap on the wrist, the feds are fining two companies involved in last year's collapse at the Texas A&M Equine Complex construction site that left four workers injured. The Bryan-College Station Eagle reports that Ramco Erectors, a company based in Houston, was fined a little more than $40,000 for seven safety violations discovered by OHSA inspectors. The general contractor, Gamma Construction, has also been hit with less than $7,000 in fines. From the article: “The injured – all of whom recovered from their injuries – were working on a 300-foot barn that was under construction as part of the $80 million Equine Complex when it collapsed due to a failure in structural stability, according to the OSHA citations.
January 07, 2014
In just the latest example of the consequences that can result from a lack of quality control in construction, the Army Corps of Engineers has been sharply criticized by the Department of Defense for work done on military bases. From Law 360: “The office of DOD Inspector General Jon T. Rymer found that officials’ management of the construction of a joint special operations task force headquarters at Bagram Airfield in Parwan Province, Afghanistan, and related support facilities, was not in line with Army Corps guidelines or the Federal Acquisition Regulation.“Army Corps Transatlantic District-North project engineers and construction representatives weren’t given the required statement of understanding and compliance for quality assurance individuals to acknowledge their understanding of their duties, the DOD found.
December 30, 2013
In what will hopefully be the first in a series of events like it across Texas, business leaders and educators from the Houston area gathered to talk about the best ways they can work together to put kids on track for the skilled trades if that’s what those students want to do. The Building Careers: Construction Workforce Luncheon was well attended on November 5. As we’ve written many times on Construction Citizen, the college-for-all mentality and policy this state has embraced over the last decade has become a hindrance to the success of many students and the people who will eventually be their employers. That’s why there was a huge push in the Texas Legislature this year to reform curriculum and graduation requirements in a way that provides flexibility for students to either go to college or head straight for a career.
December 19, 2013
It could take a half a year before the investigation is complete into exactly what went wrong leading up to a worker’s death on December 3 during renovations at Kyle Field at Texas A&M University. Activity ground to a halt after the man fell four stories to his death. From TV station KBTX on the day of the accident: “Kyle Field is currently undergoing significant construction for its redevelopment. Manhattan-Vaughn Construction out of Houston is the company leading the project, which began in August around Kyle Field, then kicked into high gear at the end of the home schedule of the football season last month. The university's athletic department has shut down its popular cameras on the redevelopment website, KyleField.com.
December 09, 2013
Now that the City of Houston is moving forward with a policy to crack down on employers that steal the wages of workers, the pressure will be on to make it work. It'll be no small task because, as you well know, those that engage in these crimes against hard-working Texans are pretty slippery characters. And that's probably being kind about it. Laura Perez-Boston at the Fe y Justicia Worker Center tells us exactly what the law is designed to do:“The ordinance establishes a process housed in the Office of the Inspector General through which employees can bring wage claims forward. Companies with a documented record of wage theft – either final adjudication from a court of competent jurisdiction or a criminal conviction – will be included in a publicly listed database on the City’s website and will be ineligible for city contracts or sub-contracts. Additionally, any company with a criminal conviction of wage theft will be ineligible to receive occupational permits and licenses.”
December 05, 2013
A 19-year-old construction worker who barely survived a worksite accident at a high-rise construction project in downtown Austin says he was fired because he told federal safety investigators what happened, the Workers Defense Project revealed this weekend. On Saturday, Wilmer Lopez Sanchez and others took to the streets in the rain and the cold to protest what they called his retaliatory firing.On November 8th, a load of reinforcing steel fell several stories from a crane at the new luxury apartment high-rise at 7th and Rio Grande. Lopez Sanchez was nearly crushed and other workers were rushed to the hospital. Federal safety investigators interviewed Lopez Sanchez about the accident on Tuesday afternoon. He was fired the next day. “They almost took my life. Now they've taken my job,“ he said.
November 26, 2013
