In line with AGC’s regulatory recommendations, on June 7, U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta announced the withdrawal of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) 2015 and 2016 informal guidance on joint employment and independent contractors. Both pieces of guidance together took an expansive interpretation of employment and threatened the traditional relationship between contractors and their partners. AGC and its members were concerned that these interpretations would make compliance more complicated, leading to unnecessary enforcement efforts and increased costs to projects.
The 2015 Labor Department memo aimed to address the misclassification of employees as independent contractors. The Department’s position was that most workers qualify as employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and its broad definition of “employ.” Then, in 2016, the Department issued a second memo establishing new standards for determining joint employment under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA). The intent was to hold companies jointly accountable for FLSA and MSPA violations of their subcontractors, staffing agencies, joint venture partners, and the like through use of an “economic realities” analysis.
AGC continues to identify opportunities where AGC and the Department of Labor (DOL) can partner on its mission to keep American workers safe and healthy while stimulating economic growth and creating new high quality jobs. Specifically, AGC advises that DOL can achieve these goals through regulatory reduction and streamlining, strengthening the symbiotic partnership between DOL and the construction industry and enhancing present regulatory compliance education and collaboration initiatives.
For more information, contact Claiborne Guy at claiborne.guy@agc.org or 703-837-5382.
