|
ODOT Changes Primavera P6 Version
ODOT will be upgrading to Oracle Primavera P6 version 16.1 in July 2016. They should still be able to accept schedule files from contractors that run previous versions of P6. The only thing contractors need to do when exporting schedule files is to use the .xml file extension, not the .xer file extension. See export dialogue box below:
As the “go live” gets closer, contractors will start getting requests from ODOT project engineers for the .xml file extension. A revised CPM Progress Schedule Proposal Note is forthcoming. If you have any questions, please contact Clint Bishop with ODOT at [email protected].
Republicans Introduce Resolution to Block Overtime Rule
Senate Republicans continued their long-shot fight against the Labor Department's new overtime rule, introducing June 7 a disapproval resolution that would stop the regulation from going into effect.
The measure, sponsored by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), is likely to be vetoed if it lands on President Barack Obama's desk. Still, Republicans are looking to use the Congressional Review Act to at least slow the rule's implementation so that whoever replaces Obama in the White House next year can scrap it altogether.
The rule is expected to make more than 4 million workers newly eligible for time-and-a-half wages for all hours logged on the job beyond 40 each week. It more than doubles the threshold for overtime eligibility—up to about $47,500—and provides for automatic increases every three years. Click here to read more.
Less Litigation; More Dollars Recouped For Central States
The Central States pension fund recently fell short in its attempt to cut the benefits it provides retirees, but the country's largest multiemployer fund has had some success in another area: collecting debts from employers that exit the fund.
In the five years leading up to its request to the Treasury Department to cut benefits, the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund moved away from its once litigation-driven tactics and has used alternate ways to recover liability payments.
According to a recent independent data search, the fund has been filing fewer lawsuits in the past five years while at the same time it has been consistently collecting more withdrawal liability payments.
Once described by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit as a “uniquely aggressive seeker of withdrawal payments,” the fund filed 52 lawsuits in 2011 seeking withdrawal liability payments. By 2015, this dropped 35 percent, to 34.
Despite the decline in lawsuits, Central States has seen the actual dollar amount of withdrawal liability collected increase from $171 million in 2011 to $548 million in 2015, Thomas C. Nyhan, executive director and general counsel of the Central States fund, stated. Click here to read this article in its entirety.
|