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Join 51���� of America’s Open Shop Committee and HR Forum for a web meeting featuring a “Quick Learn” presentation on drug and background screening on November 19 starting at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Following an update by 51���� Associate General Counsel Denise Gold on various legal developments, experts Thomas Eden of Constangy, Brooks & Smith, LLP and Joy Osburn of Wolfe, Inc. will provide a PowerPoint presentation on how to protect your company from costly hiring mistakes through effective drug and background screening.

It is a reality. For construction employers, a workforce shortage is just around the corner and with many returning veterans and military spouses seeking employment, making a connection is a win for all. As part of the construction industry’s effort to hire 100,000 veterans over the next five years, the Associated General Contractors of America (51����) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation presented a 60-minute webinar on Hiring Our Heroes: Best Practices for Construction Employers. Led by seasoned veteran recruitment experts, this webinar provided construction industry employers with the insight necessary to find, recruit, and hire returning veterans and military spouses.

A shopping mall owner may bring state law claims for trespass and nuisance against a union that waged an unruly protest against a mall tenant’s use of nonunion subcontractors, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (AK, AZ, CA, ID, MT, NV, OR, WA, HI, Guam) has held. The court rejected the position of the union and of the Seventh Circuit that such the state law claims are preempted by the federal Labor Management Relations Act (“LMRA”).

#top { float: left; padding-right: 10px; } 51���� is excited to announce the release of a new anti-harassment DVD called Diversity Rules: Harassment Prevention, Sensitivity & Correction Training for Construction Workers and Supervisors (“Diversity Rules”). Diversity Rules is one DVD with two training videos designed to aid construction employers with harassment prevention, sensitivity and correction training. One video is targeted for an audience of supervisors and the other is targeted for an audience of non-supervisors.

On Sept. 25, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) published a final rule that impacts federal contractors and subcontractors that hire and employ veterans under provisions of the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (VEVRAA). The final rule rescinds the regulations applicable to federal contracts and subcontracts entered into before December 1, 2003, because those regulations are now obsolete. In addition, the final rule revises the regulations that outline the reporting requirements applicable to federal contracts and subcontracts of $100,000 or more entered into or modified after Dec. 1, 2003, by changing the manner in which federal contractors report on their employment of veterans. The new rule goes into effect on Oct. 27, 2014. Covered contractors must comply beginning with the annual report filed in 2015.

The Employment Retirement Income Security Act requires plan fiduciaries to make reasonable efforts to locate missing participants or beneficiaries so that they may direct the distribution of their plan accounts. As a result, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) recently published Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2014-01, which lays out the steps fiduciaries of a defined contribution plan must take to locate missing participants before making distributions following a plan termination.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) released its final rule implementing Executive Order 13658 (EO), which establishes a minimum wage of $10.10 per hour for direct federal prime contractors and subcontractors at all tiers. That $10.10 minimum wage must be adjusted annually for inflation. The new minimum wage will take effect on direct federal agency contracts entered into on or after Jan. 1, 2015. Federally-assisted contractors are not affected. The final rule will be published in the Federal Register on Oct. 7.

The 51����-supported Construction Labor Research Council (CLRC) has released its second report of the year on collective bargaining settlements in the industry.  Settlements reported between January and September 2014 resulted in an average first-year wage-and-benefit increase of 2.3 percent or $1.14.  For newly negotiated multiyear agreements, the average second-year increase was 2.6 percent or $1.35, and the average third-year increase was 2.4 percent or $1.32.  The percentage of settlements with no increases negotiated during the latest period – 8 percent – was the same as that found in 2013 but less than the 13 percent found in 2012.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has issued a new directive to provide guidance on the agency’s approach to employment discrimination on the basis of gender identity or transgender status.  In Directive 2014-02, OFCCP clarifies that it considers discrimination on the basis of gender identity or transgender status to be a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Executive Order 11246.

Each October, construction industry professionals in HR, training and workforce development gear up for the industry’s premier learning and networking event, 51����’s Construction HR & Training Professionals Conference, and this year is no different.  The 2014 event will be held Oct. 15-17 at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel in Phoenix, Ariz.  For more information or to register, visit www.agc.org/CHRTPC.