Turning the page on the new calendar is something California employers do with a certain uneasy sense of anticipation as they find out what new laws went into effect January 1st. We will be reporting on these changes in how you operate your business within the boundaries of state statutes, but one of the New [...]
With a new decade underway, there is no way to escape a look back at important stuff, and, in this case, the lookback comes from the federal Bureau of Labor Standards statistics with a review of the nearly steady improvement in worker safety. As with most government reports, there is a lag between when data [...]
You may have noticed, change is in the air…especially, the changes in California state law as it affects the construction industry. While we have covered the strengthened apprenticeship requirements heralded under Assembly Bill 3018, there are other bills (now laws), AB 1768 and AB 695, that tighten prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements well beyond the [...]
Nearly every crime drama on television uses this three-letter phrase to solve the mystery: “Follow the money.” With that in mind, California State Controller Betty T. Yee released, in late November, a detailed review of where cities get the money they need to operate. For our industry, the Utility User fees/taxes are the top priority [...]
The story of international materials producer CEMEX's efforts to open a new gravel/cement mine in the Santa Clarita valley faces new challenges from both federal and state agencies. The proposed mine represents efforts to add capacity to the Mexican cement giant's U.S. aggregate production facilities. The conflict between Santa Clarita residents and the company has, [...]
There was a lot more than football to keep an eye on January 1. Take, for example, the new overtime pay regulations from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) that went into effect New Year's Day. The department estimates that 1.2 million additional workers will be entitled to minimum wage and overtime pay as a [...]
California employers got a possible reprieve from California's Assembly Bill 5, a new law in effect January 1, which was allegedly designed to limit “gig” employers like Uber and Lift from using the “independent contractor” designation rather than making them actual employees. In the process, the law included millions of other California workers, from beauticians [...]
We owe the name for the month of January to the Romans who, during this time, honored their god Janus, gifted with the ability to see both the past and the future. Starting my second year as president of the Engineering Contractors' Association, it is thus time to look at our industry's recent past and [...]
We are just getting started in the basketball season, so when we started looking at safety questions pending in the coming year, we found five common issues that everybody has to keep in front of their team—the starting five if you will. The implementation of a safety and health management system is much more challenging [...]
If you are a contractor on a federally funded project, you need the new U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) comprehensive Technical Assistance Guide (TAG) for the construction industry. The guide assists contractors in meeting their legal requirements and responsibilities for equal employment opportunity by preventing violations before they occur. Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs [...]
