DOL Reverts to Old Ideas for New Construction Worker Wages
On August 8, 2023, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced their final rule (Final Rule) revising the Davis-Bacon Act (DBA) and Davis-Bacon Related Acts (Related Acts). The DBA and Related Acts require contractors and subcontractors that perform work on federal and federally funded construction projects to pay a government-determined prevailing wage and benefit rate on an hourly basis to on-site construction workers. While the Final Rule makes several changes to the DBA and Related Acts, (the list is too exhaustive to cover in a single blurb such as this) it’s the change regarding how the prevailing wages are determined that is
NLRB ELECTION RULE CHANGES
NLRB Overturns 2019 Trump-era Election Procedures in Two Recent Rulings This August, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) issued two rulings that will have important implications for nonunion employers. On August 25, 2023, the NLRB issued its decision in Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC, where the NLRB partially returned to a decades-old test from Joy Silk Mills, Inc, changing how and when unionizing elections can be held. Under the prior Linden Lumber rule, an employer had the right to a secret ballot election before unionization would be permitted. However, under the new Cemex rule, it is easy for the employer to lose
5TH CIRCUIT EMPLOYMENT DECISION
Nine female detention service officers triggered one of the most significant developments in employment discrimination laws in recent memory when they sued the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department for not allowing them to take weekends off. Hamilton v. Dallas County, No. 21-10133, 2023 WL 5316716 (5th Cir. Aug. 18, 2023). The Sheriff’s Department had instituted an admittedly sex-based policy that allowed male officers to take both weekend days off, while only allowing female officers to take two weekdays off or one weekend day and one weekday off. The 5th Circuit commented, “Bottom line: Female officers never get a full weekend off.” The