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On July 13, Construction Citizen shared a story first reported by Dallas/Fort Worth television station WFAA about misclassification of workers on a school construction project. Last week, the same WFAA reporter submitted an update to the story.The original story featured a subcontractor who lost the bid for work on Mansfield Independent School District’s Center for the Performing Arts to a competitor who does not pay payroll taxes, unemployment tax, or workers’ compensation insurance. Following the investigation and airing of the story, the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) charged Mireles, the subcontractor who was hired for the project but did not pay those taxes, for
Reshaping the Construction Industry
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December 27, 2011
As previously reported in the Construction Citizen series about the 2040 Scenarios event, the evening included a discussion between the group of industry leaders who attended...
December 22, 2011
Did you know that research indicates that by the year 2040, there will be 7,919,901 Texans who will be eligible for adult education services? By the way, that is a 99%...
December 21, 2011
One of the biggest safety issues on the complex jobsite is to know where the workforce is at any time without walking the site and visually identifying each individual. Technology can solve that issue, and it is not somewhere out in the future.The future is here according to an article in Constructech that talks about using radio-frequency identification chips, or RFID chips, in the nametags for workers on any jobsite. Companies like ADR Software are providing that service for over 15,000 workers on jobsites around the country. Then, according to the article, if an accident occurs on a jobsite, the superintendent can immediately see where everyone is located on the site, and can make
December 19, 2011
As previously reported in the Construction Citizen series about the 2040 Scenarios event, the evening included a discussion between the group of industry leaders who attended...
December 15, 2011
Connecticut newspaper The Stamford Advocate reported that subcontractor John Dosky, owner of American Building Group LLC, was recently arrested by Connecticut State Police for wage theft violations against three brothers, one of whom died from a fall while working for him. Dosky was charged with three felony counts of “failure to pay wages” for owing the brothers almost $8,000 in unpaid wages. The Department of Labor is also taking action against his company for misclassifying these and other employees as independent contractors, a practice known as payroll fraud.The death occurred in October after 36-year-old Javiar Salinas fell more than 50 feet at the Chelsea Piers sports complex construction site in Stamford. An article in The Danbury News-Times reported that Salinas’ estate is filing suit against each of his employers, including the developers (Chelsea Piers Connecticut LLC and Stamford Exit 9 LLC), contractor (Merritt Contractors Inc), subcontractor (AP Construction), and the sub-sub contractor (Dosky’s company, American Building LLC), because Salinas was not wearing a safety harness when he climbed to the roof that day, allowing a gust of wind to knock him off of the roof.After the accident, Javiar’s brothers went to the Department of Labor to seek help in collecting
December 14, 2011
Last week, I attended the Texas Carpenters and Millwrights Training Trust meeting in San Antonio. Approximately 15 people participated – a blend of management and labor trustees – from the major cities in Texas. We also had a special guest, Dennis Donahue, the newly appointed head of the Millwrights Union for an 11 state area.We had a special presentation by Kenneth Posey of the Houston Community College; his objective was to explain the relationship between the HCC and the Houston Apprentice School. He is a fine gentleman, a registered engineer, and a former director of the Pipe Fitters Apprentice Program. He is a passionate advocate for craft training.He opened his remarks by distributing the brochure and bragging about the initiative Construction Career Collaborative (C3), suggesting it will only enhance craft training
December 13, 2011
One of my mentors, Tim Johnson, has always said that it is it important for us to seek out quality workforce programs and recognize these “pockets of excellence”. I agree.I recently attended a Construction Career Day held in Irving, Texas at the Construction Education Foundation of North Texas (CEF). CEF was founded in 1981 and is supported by numerous industry partners and associations. Through their agreement with North Lake College, students are able to receive college credit for their craft training classes. Industry support for the foundation is broad based, and the foundation continues to offer quality craft training programs to the residents of North Texas.I toured their facilities during my visit and viewed students competing for a coveted spot in the ABC National Craft Championship Competition. If you have never attended a craft championship competition, you want to correct that. It‘s a great event.I enjoyed watching the high school students come and go and interact with craft competitors.
December 12, 2011
One of the attendees of the 2040 Scenarios presentation and discussion was Hal Sharp, an architect with Gensler. After the event wrapped up, Donna Rybiski from the Center...
December 08, 2011
The US Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) has a website with specific information about the issue of worker misclassification, also known as payroll fraud, and the measures being taken by each state to abolish it. The website includes links to each Memorandum of Understanding which has been signed between the WHD and specific states’ Departments of Labor and Industry. These agreements were created to promote compliance with laws already in existence within the states and to aid in communicating with employers and employees through training materials and coordinated enforcement actions in order to “protect the wages of America's workforce”. Only eleven states have signed such agreements at this time.The WHD website also contains links to each state’s Department of Labor, links to all WHD press releases categorized by region, information about related federal and state laws, workplace informational posters available for download in a variety of
December 07, 2011
