More Job Openings Than Job Seekers For 15th Straight Month
There were 7.3 million job openings at the end of May, according to the latest JOLT (Job Openings and Labor Turnover) survey from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This was the 15th straight month that the number of job openings was higher than the number of job seekers, and follows the employment report from June, which showed employers added 224,000 jobs as the unemployment rate rose to 3.7 percent. The JOLT survey lags the BLS employment report by a month.
Click here to read the report
OCA/Ohio Laborers LECET Fund Charity Golf Outing
OCA is co-sponsoring a charity golf outing with the Ohio Laborers LECET Fund on September 13, 2019 at the Deer Ridge Golf Club in Bellville, Ohio. OCA's designated charity to benefit from the event is the Ronald McDonald House. We encourage OCA members to join us for a day of fun and networking with representatives of the Ohio Laborers Union, and to generate much needed funds for some wonderful charities. To review additional information about the event and for a registration/sponsorship brochure, please click on the following link. Click here for more information. Click here for registration material.
Sedgwick to Acquire CareWorks Comp and CareWorks of Ohio
As announced on July 8, Sedgwick has signed an agreement to acquire York Risk Services Group, a leading risk solutions provider and parent company of CareWorks Comp and CareWorks of Ohio, complementary businesses to Sedgwick’s CompManagement and CompManagement Health Systems organizations. CareWorks Comp and CareWorks of Ohio provide comprehensive managed care and claims administration services to Ohio employers.
This strategic acquisition solidifies our longstanding commitment to the Ohio market by bringing together the most extensive array of capabilities and expertise for the benefit of our local clients. Upon close of the transaction (subject to customary conditions and regulatory approvals), together we will continue delivering best-in-class claims management, proven cost containment strategies, multiple discount program options, safety best practices and other services through the dedication of our talented colleagues.
While this is great news for CompManagement and CareWorks, our collective focus remains clearly on our local Ohio clients. Our top priority will always be ensuring that clients’ programs continue to produce outstanding results. Our dedicated colleague teams and trusted technology remain in place to provide those we serve with the exceptional support they expect.
For additional about the acquisition, contact Mary Beth Sanford, Managing Director, CompManagement, 6377 Emerald Parkway, Dublin, Ohio 43016, at (800)-825-6755.
OCA Member Discounts Benefit You and Your Employees
As an OCA member firm, you have access to savings for items including cell phones, office supplies, paint, industrial gas and welding products, and payroll and HR solutions. For more information about discounts available to your firm, visit: https://mynpp.com/association/ohio-contractors-association
Did you know your OCA membership also includes some perks you can pass along to your employees? Your team can enjoy discounts on a variety of items, like Skechers, chocolates, pet insurance, tires…and many more. The following link is just for employees. Share away and let the savings begin: https://mynpp.com/employee
Contact Lynda Pomeroy, [email protected] , for assistance.
OCA Laborers Heavy Highway Agreement Now Available
The 2019-2022 OCA/Laborers Highway Heavy Agreement is now available in both printed booklet form as well as in PDF version online format which can be downloaded from the OCA website.
If you wish to order the printed booklets, please contact Kim Dillon in the OCA office by phone at 614-488-0724, or via email at, [email protected].
If you wish to download the PDF version of the agreement, go to the OCA website at www.ohiocontractors.org. Sign in with your OCA membership credentials and click on the Labor Employment Law section. You will find the Labor Agreements there.
The Cement Masons, Teamsters and Carpenters agreements are nearing completion and will be listed as soon as they are completed. Look for an announcement in the newsletter.
Free Trench Safety Webinar
Recently, OCA joined in with OSHA and other sponsors to conduct two days of trenching & excavation safety instruction, demonstrations and witness testimony from survivors of trench collapse. The “Trench Safety Days” on June 24 and 25 were well attended and served our audience well for refocusing on one of the most hazardous operations that we face as contractors and employees.
Unfortunately, trenching and excavation operations in the construction industry continue to take lives needlessly. Recent trench failures with resulting fatalities in Ohio drive this point home. Contractors and their employees have many resources available to ensure that no one ever enters an unsafe trench. Do you know what you must do to protect your workers and your company when conducting trenching and excavation operations? If you don’t and you missed our “Trench Safety Days”, you have another opportunity!
On the heels of our successful event, the Ohio BWC, Division of Safety & Hygiene is offering a free Trench Webinar. There is no cost to sit in on the event, scheduled on July 15, 2019 from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
The Webinar will be conducted by Mona Weiss, an OSHA authorized construction outreach trainer with 32 years of experience in the field of safety and health. She holds a B.S. in Occupational Safety and Health and held safety management positions with two Forbes rated companies. She has worked throughout the U.S. and in Finland.
Should you have any questions about the Webinar, please contact Michele Schuck of the BWC at [email protected]. Otherwise, please click on the following link for additional information about the Trenching Webinar and to register. Registration and more information here.
DOL Offers Wage and Hour Compliance Tips in Three Opinion Letters
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued three new opinion letters addressing how to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) when rounding employee work hours and other wage and hour issues.
Opinion letters describe how the agency would enforce statutes and regulations in specific circumstances presented by an employer, worker or other party who requests the opinion. Opinion letters are not binding, but there may be a safe harbor for employers that show they relied on one.
The DOL Wage and Hour Division's July 1 letters covered:
• Permissible rounding practices for calculating an employee's hours worked.
• How to apply the "highly compensated employee" exemption from overtime pay to paralegals who are employed by a trade organization.
• How to calculate overtime pay for nondiscretionary bonuses that are paid on a quarterly and annual basis.
Here are the key takeaways for employers.
Rounding Practices
One letter reviewed whether an organization's rounding practices are permissible under the Service Contract Act (SCA), which requires government contractors and subcontractors to pay prevailing wages and benefits and applies FLSA principles to calculate hours worked.
The employer's payroll software extended employees' clocked time to six decimal points and then rounded that number to two decimal points. When the third decimal was less than .005, the second decimal was not adjusted, but when the third decimal was .005 or greater, the second decimal was rounded up by 0.01. Then the software calculated daily pay by multiplying the rounded daily hours by the SCA's prevailing wage.
Employers may round workers' time if doing so "will not result, over a period of time, in failure to compensate the employees properly for all the time they have actually worked," according to the FLSA.
"It has been our policy to accept rounding to the nearest five minutes, one-tenth of an hour, one-quarter of an hour, or one-half hour as long as the rounding averages out so that the employees are compensated for all the time they actually work," the opinion letter said.
Based on the facts provided, the DOL concluded that the employer's rounding practice complied with the FLSA and the SCA. The rounding practice was "neutral on its face" and appeared to average out so that employees were paid for all the hours they actually worked.
For employers, the letter provides two significant details, said Marty Heller, an attorney with Fisher Phillips in Atlanta. First, it confirms that the DOL applies the FLSA's rounding practices to the SCA. Second, it confirms the DOL's position that computer rounding is permissible, at least when the rounding involves a practice that appears to be neutral and does not result in the failure to compensate employees fully over a period of time, he said.
Patrick Hulla, an attorney with Ogletree Deakins in Kansas City, Mo., noted that the employer's rounding practice in this case differed from many employers' application of the principle. Specifically, the employer was rounding time entries to six decimal places. Most employers round using larger periods of time—in as many as 15-minute increments, he said.
"Employers taking advantage of permissible rounding should periodically confirm that their practices are neutral, which can be a costly and time-consuming exercise," he suggested.
Exempt Paralegals
Another letter analyzed whether a trade organization's paralegals were exempt from the FLSA's minimum wage and overtime requirements. Under the FLSA's white-collar exemptions, employees must earn at least $23,660 and perform certain duties. However, employees whose total compensation is at least $100,000 a year are considered highly compensated employees and are eligible for exempt status if they meet a reduced duties test, as follows:
• The employee's primary duty must be office or nonmanual work.
• The employee must "customarily and regularly" perform at least one of the bona fide exempt duties of an executive, administrative or professional employee.
Employers should note that the DOL's proposed changes to the overtime rule would raise the regular salary threshold to $35,308 and the highly compensated salary threshold to $147,414.
Because "a high level of compensation is a strong indicator of an employee's exempt status," the highly compensated employee exemption "eliminates the need for a detailed analysis of the employee's job duties," the opinion letter explained.
The paralegals described in the letter appeared to qualify for the highly compensated employee exemption because all their duties were nonmanual, they were paid at least $100,000 a year, and they "customarily and regularly" perform at least one duty under the administrative exemption.
The letter cited "a litany of the paralegals' job duties and responsibilities—including keeping and maintaining corporate and official records, assisting the finance department with bank account matters, and budgeting—that are directly related to management or general business operations," the DOL said.
The DOL noted that some paralegals don't qualify for the administrative exemption because their primary duties don't include exercising discretion and independent judgment on significant matters. But the "discretion and independent judgment" factor doesn't have to be satisfied under the highly compensated employee exception.
Calculating Bonuses
The third letter discussed whether the FLSA requires an employer to include a nondiscretionary bonus that is a fixed percentage of an employee's straight-time wages received over multiple workweeks in the calculation of the employee's regular rate of pay at the end of each workweek.
Under the FLSA, nonexempt employees must be paid at least 1 1/2 times their regular rate of pay for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek, unless they are covered by an exemption—but the regular rate is based on more than just the employee's hourly wage. It includes all remuneration for employment unless the compensation falls within one of eight statutory exclusions. Nondiscretionary bonuses count as remuneration and must be included in the calculation.
"An employer may base a nondiscretionary bonus on work performed during multiple workweeks and pay the bonus at the end of the bonus period," according to the opinion letter. "An employer, however, is not required to retrospectively recalculate the regular rate if the employer pays a fixed percentage bonus that simultaneously pays overtime compensation due on the bonus."
The annual bonus in this case was not tied to straight-time or overtime hours. Based on the facts provided by an employee, the DOL said that after the employer pays the annual bonus, it must recalculate the regular rate for each workweek in the bonus period and pay any overtime compensation that is due on the annual bonus.
For the quarterly bonuses, the employee received 15 percent of his straight-time and overtime wages so they "simultaneously include all overtime compensation due on the bonus as an arithmetic fact," the DOL said.
OCA Future Leaders Forum - Application Deadline July 29th
The OCA Future Leaders Forum application period is open for its 2019-2020 participants. The purpose of this forum is to develop future leaders for the heavy/highway construction industry in the State of Ohio. The program will provide participants the opportunity to enhance their knowledge of construction-related topics in the areas of regulatory agencies, legislative processes, risk management, develop leadership skills and the role of OCA as an industry advocate and member service provider. Register early as class size is limited to 20 participants. Application deadline is July 29th.
For full details, application material, promotional brochure and sessions outline click here.
ODOT Announces Work Type 57 Concrete Sealer Training Dates
Registration is currently open for the following sessions of Work Type 57 Concrete Sealer Training.
July 15: In-person (Columbus) – Click here to register
Webcast (Garfield Heights) – Click here to register
Webcast (Lebanon) – Click here to register
November 19: In-person (Columbus) – Click here to register
Webcast (Garfield Heights) – Click here to register
Webcast (Lebanon) – Click here to register
To access a PDF flyer for this training, click here.
To view all courses that are currently available for enrollment, click here.
If you have any questions regarding the online registration process, please contact Ohio LTAP by phone or email.
The Ohio LTAP Center
1980 W. Broad Street, Mail Stop #1240
Columbus, OH 43223 614-387-7359 or 1-877-800-0031 (Toll Free)
email: [email protected]
website: http://www.dot.state.oh.us/ltap
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