On September 26, 2010, The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began requiring E-Verify-participating employers to compare the photo from U.S. passports presented during the I-9 process with the government's digitally stored photos online.  This new requirement occurred shortly after the one-year anniversary date of the same agency's rule requiring federal contractors and subcontractors to use the E-Verify system to verify their employees' authorization to work in the U.S. 

Collective bargaining settlements reported to the Construction Labor Research Council (CLRC) between January and June of this year resulted in an average first-year wage-and-benefits increase of $0.55 or 1.1 percent.  This is considerably lower than the $1.49 or 3.1 percent average increase reported for the comparable period last year.  The average second-year increase in newly negotiated multi-year agreements is $0.69 or 1.6 percent, and the average third-year increase is $1.01 or 2.2 percent.  These increases are also lower than those negotiated a year earlier, but by a smaller margin, according to CLRC.  As reported earlier in Human Resource & Labor News, wage-and-benefit increases negotiated in 2009 overall were the lowest in 13 years.

AGC's 9^th Annual HR Professionals Conference and 4^th Annual Training & Development (T&D) Conference will take place October 18-20, 2010, at the Doubletree Paradise Valley Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz.  Training, development and human resource professionals will gather to network and earn valuable continuing education credits toward their respective designations. 

The Associated General Contractors of America's 9th Annual HR Professionals Conference will be co-located with the 4th Annual Training & Development Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. Each conference provides a unique opportunity for AGC members and chapter staff to participate in industry-focused sessions to learn innovative approaches to managing training and human capital.  The conferences will be held at the Doubletree Paradise Valley Resort/Scottsdale.

Recently, the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Wage & Hour Division issued an Administrator's Interpretation to provide guidance on whether protective gear is considered "clothes" in Section 203 (o) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  In addition to defining "clothes," the interpretation clarifies whether time spent by employees washing or changing clothes, or "donning and doffing" protective gear and other equipment is compensable.  This interpretation reverses prior opinion letters issued by DOL and affects collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) where such time may have once been considered unpaid.

On June 22, 2010, the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Wage and Hour Division, through an Administrative Interpretation (AI), clarified the definition of "son or daughter" as it relates to the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA).  The AI clarifies the rights of certain caregivers in a parental role, such as relatives and same-sex partners, giving them access to  protected leave to care for or bond with a child as outlined in the FMLA.

The Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contractor Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) on July 23, 2010, soliciting comments about the agency's plans to strengthen regulations related to affirmative action for individuals with disabilities under the Rehabilitation Act.  The OFCCP notes that, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percentage of individuals with disabilities in the workforce in March 2010 was only 22.5, as compared to 70.2 percent of individuals who are not disabled.  The OFCCP clearly intends to impose additional requirements on federal contractors, the most significant of which may be the requirement to create job groups and compare the percentage of individuals with disabilities in each job group with the availability of individuals with disabilities within the contractor's recruitment area.  Contractors concerned about the potential changes have a unique opportunity to comment on such changes before the regulations are written.

Solicitations requiring bidders on certain U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) construction projects to submit an executed project labor agreement (PLA) prompted AGC to write and call agency officials expressing strong concern.  On August 18, the agency called AGC to announce that it was withdrawing the PLA requirement and to thank AGC for educating them on the issue.

On June 25, President Obama signed into law H.R. 3962, the Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010 (the Act), a stand-alone measure to prevent a scheduled cut in Medicare reimbursements to physicians and to provide short-term funding relief to both single- and multi-employer pension plans.  The Act contains several provisions to help multiemployer pension funds hit hard by 2008-2009 investment losses.  However, it does not contain the preferred measures sought by AGC and its coalition partners and passed by the House earlier this year. 

Collective bargaining settlements reported to the Construction Labor Research Council (CLRC) between January and June of this year resulted in an average first-year wage-and-benefits increase of $0.55 or 1.1 percent.  This is considerably lower than the $1.49 or 3.1 percent average increase reported for the comparable period last year.  The average second-year increase in newly negotiated multi-year agreements is $0.69 or 1.6 percent, and the average third-year increase is $1.01 or 2.2 percent.  These increases are also lower than those negotiated a year earlier, but by a smaller margin, according to CLRC.  As reported earlier in Human Resource & Labor News, wage-and-benefit increases negotiated in 2009 overall were the lowest in 13 years.