Worker protection unit formed in attorney general’s office (IL)

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Journal-Courier
Published 12:48 pm CDT
Monday, August 26, 2019

A new unit in the Illinois Attorney General’s Office will be charged with protecting Illinois workers from unlawful employment practices such as wage theft.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation on Friday that created a Worker Protection Unit.

The law gives the attorney general’s office express authority to investigate and file suit against employers who violate the Prevailing Wage Act, the Employee Classification Act, the Minimum Wage Law, the Day and Temporary Labor Services Act and the Wage Payment and Collection Act.

The new unit will collaborate with the Illinois Department of Labor to detect unlawful conduct. The unit can also take direct legal action against widespread wage payment violations and unfair labor practices.

A Worker Protection Unit Task Force will be created to facilitate information sharing and collaboration between state and local prosecutors and regulators. The task force will also promote a statewide outreach and enforcement effort to target businesses that violate state worker protection laws. The task force will report on its work to the governor and the General Assembly by December 2020.

The bill takes effect Jan. 1.

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Labor Training Program Aims To Bring Younger People Into Illinois Construction Trades (IL)

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By ERIC SCHMID
9-12-19

EDWARDSVILLE – A new program that gives high school students hands-on experience with the construction trades kicked off this year.

Over two years, juniors and seniors from local high schools will learn to pour concrete, install pipes, construct scaffolding and other aspects of the trades from certified labor instructors through the Illinois Laborers’ and Contractors Joint Apprenticeship and Training Program.

The program started in Marion, Illinois, last year and expanded to Edwardsville after labor leaders saw its success. It’s part of a larger push from local labor organizations to attract younger people to unions.

The average age of construction labor apprentices in downstate Illinois is 37, said Vicky McElroy, the apprenticeship coordinator at the Edwardsville training facility.

“We thought this was a way to get some good students and young people into the trades,” she said.

Sixteen juniors from Edwardsville High School make up this year’s inaugural class. The students go to the training facility for two hours every morning for a mix of classroom training and hands-on courses.

It’s new territory for the training center’s instructors, who are used to older apprentices.
“In some ways it’s a very big advantage,” said Jason Jackson, one of the course instructors. “If I’m teaching them math or labor history or anything like that, I can actually send them home with homework.”

He acknowledges there are challenges, too. One of those is managing a room full of teenagers, he said, and another is fitting hands-on activities, like pouring concrete, into the two-hour course blocks.

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker announces $23.5 billion in road projects, bridge repairs (IL)

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By Greg Bishop
10-21-19

Gov. J.B. Pritzker unveiled Monday a multi-year plan to spend $23.5 billion on road and bridge projects that were included in Illinois’ $45 billion capital plan, which will be funded through tax and fee hikes.

The Rebuild Illinois plan enacted this summer doubled the state’s gas tax from 19 cents to 38 cents a gallon. Taxpayers have already paid more than $414 million in just two months, $200 million more than the year before. The plan also increased other driving fees. Such funds are going to roads and bridges in the plan.

…

Pritzker detailed $23.5 billion in road and bridge spending specifics on Monday in Springfield. The multi-year plan’s detailed projects can be found at IDOT.Illinois.gov.
The plan covers more than 2,000 miles of roadway and 847 bridges.

Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Omer Osman said state funding would be supplemented with about $9 billion from the federal government.

“And of course that’s going to give us the flexibility of matching any federal funding,” Osman said. “And even if we have another transportation bill coming out of [Washington] D.C., even if that goes up, we still have the ability to match that increased funding.”
Pritzker said the state is also using a federal Transportation Asset Management Plan standard.

“Many other states have been working toward that standard, we are for the first time working toward that standard,” Pritzker said. “What does that mean? It means we’re saving a lot of money for taxpayers as we’re focusing on our roads and bridges.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation said TAMP is “a strategic and systematic process of operating, maintaining, and improving physical assets, with a focus on engineering and economic analysis based upon quality information, to identify a structured sequence of maintenance, preservation, repair, rehabilitation, and replacement actions that will achieve and sustain a desired state of good repair over the lifecycle of the assets at minimum practicable cost.”

Illinois’ TAMP was accepted by the federal government in August.

“We look forward to working with IDOT as you implement the TAMP to achieve and sustain a state of good repair over the life cycle of both pavement and bridge assets and to improve or preserve the overall condition of the National Highway System,” U.S. Department of Transportation Division Administrator Arlene Kocher said.

No money has gone out from Illinois’ plan yet, but Pritzker’s administration said it will use pay-go funds for roads and bridges and borrowing through taxpayer-backed bonds for larger highway projects such as interchanges.

Laborers Local 477 representative George Alexander said the statewide infrastructure plan would put unions back to work.

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Illinois lawmakers consider bill to make general contractors responsible for other’s unpaid wages (IL)

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By Cole Lauterbach
The Center Square | Jul 19, 2019

Illinois lawmakers are considering sending Gov. J.B. Pritzker legislation that would put general contractors on the hook for any wages a subcontractor failed to pay workers.

The House passed the legislation this spring. Should Pritzker sign the bill into law, any general contractor who hires a subcontractor that doesn’t properly pay employees could be sued for those wages.

Sponsoring Senator Laura Fine, D-Glenview, said wage theft has become common

“Wage theft could range anything to not paying workers for hours they work to not paying the legal minimum wage,” she said.

Fine said she wanted to get as much feedback from opponents as possible, signaling that she may amend the bill.

Bill Ward of the Homebuilders Association of Illinois said no one supports wage theft, but the bill, as it’s written, would increase costs for companies due to the increased risk of getting sued.

“This bill says an innocent person who has paid the subcontractor in whole, the general contractor, can be gone after,” he said.

Fine said the bill would allow general contractors to be exempt from the law if they get verification from the subcontractor that they’ve paid all of their people, but Republicans in the House said that would be a significant burden for a general contractor to undertake.

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Mendoza signs prevailing wage executive order (IL)

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By Jerry Nowicki
Aug. 14, 2019

SPRINGFIELD – With a $45 billion, six-year capital infrastructure plan becoming law earlier this year, Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza signed an executive order Tuesday aimed at refocusing enforcement of state prevailing wage laws for construction projects receiving state money.

“When I took office in 2016, we made sure to let folks know that … our goal is to continue to enforce this executive act. What we’re doing now is just reaffirming it and updating it and getting the word out as we embark on a $45 billion capital plan that this is state law, people need to be aware of it, they need to abide by it.”

Prevailing wage is the rate of compensation determined by the government that must be paid to workers for projects involving state government funding.

At a news conference in her office Tuesday, Mendoza warned of halted checks for any contractor if it comes to her attention workers are not receiving the prevailing wage.

Mendoza said anyone believing a company is in violation of the act could notify her office.

“They would notify us, we would look into that alongside the Department of Labor, and we have the potential to stop payments, further vouchers going out, further warrants, essentially, being sent out until that corrective action is taken,” she said.

Mendoza’s executive order outlines other steps her office will take to ensure contractors pay their employees the prevailing wage as well. The executive order says her office will not accept any grant or contract submissions without proof that the contractor is in compliance with the prevailing wage act, and would have the authority to “pre-audit” any state-funded contracts as well.

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Mendoza says she’ll withhold pay from capital plan contractors who don’t pay prevailing wage (IL)

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By Doug Finke
Posted Aug 13, 2019 @ 5:21 pm

Comptroller Susana Mendoza said Tuesday her office will monitor contracts awarded under the state’s new $45 billion capital program to ensure contractors are adhering to prevailing wage laws.

If someone doesn’t, Mendoza said, her office will take steps to halt any payments until the contractor comes into compliance.

“We know (prevailing wage) is the law, but not everybody follows it,” Mendoza said. “What we have is a $45 billion capital plan that we are about to embark on. Anything we can do to make sure that state taxpayer dollars are being utilized (in a way that) that state law says that they must is important to get the word out and educate the public.”

Mendoza said her office will monitor and conduct preaudits of contracts and grants awarded under the Rebuild Illinois capital plan. She said her office is prepared to receive complaints from people who are aware of prevailing wage violations and will also work with the Department of Labor on complaints it receives. Attempts will be made to bring a contractor into compliance, but if all else fails, the office has a nuclear option.

“What we have the ability to do that no other state agency or no other constitutional officer has the ability to do is withhold payment,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza acknowledged the problem of prevailing wage violations is not widespread.

“Every now and then we get complaints of folks who are in violation,” she said.

Mendoza said contractors with the state have to check a box on forms pledging to adhere to the prevailing wage, so the existence of the law should come as no surprise.

Some Republicans, notably former Gov. Bruce Rauner, believed the prevailing wage law forced up the cost of public works projects.

“I disagree with this being framed as bloated and higher costs,” said Illinois AFL-CIO President Michael Carrigan. “Prevailing wage is a product of collective bargaining. Unions and employers sit down and have hard negotiations across the table. Those are a product of negotiation.”

Former Comptroller Dan Hynes, who is now a deputy governor in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration, signed a similar executive order in 2002. However, enforcement of the order has fallen off in recent years.

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ILLINOIS ATTORNEY GENERAL: Attorney General Raoul Opposes Rule Change That Endangers Rights of Millions of Workers (IL)

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By Press release submission | Jul 1, 2019

Illinois Attorney General issued the following announcement on June 26.

Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a multistate group of 19 attorneys general, opposed the U.S. Department of Labor’s proposal to narrow the interpretation of joint employment, thereby complicating how states enforce labor laws and leaving millions of workers vulnerable to labor violations.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Department of Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Raoul and the attorneys general challenge the department’s proposed change to joint employer status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The joint employment rule determines employer liability for wage theft or other workplace violations when two or more entities jointly employ a worker. Raoul and the attorneys general contend that the department has failed to justify the proposed new interpretation and draws on outdated analysis that does not consider the changing nature of workplace relationships, including the fact that a growing number of businesses are changing organizational models by outsourcing integral functions but still maintaining control of workers.

“When businesses are increasingly using contractors, employments agencies or other third parties to meet staffing needs, workplace protections should be clear,” Raoul said. “I am committed to fighting any policy that could compromise the protections our workers deserve.”

Under the proposed rule, joint employment would be determined by whether an employer hires or fires the employee; supervises and controls the employee’s schedule and working conditions; determines the employee’s rate and method of payment; and maintains the employee’s records. But according to Raoul and the attorneys general, this proposal is inconsistent with the purpose of the FLSA – to protect workers – and ignores more than 30 years of private sector development during which the economy and the workplace have changed.

Further, the attorneys general write that the department’s proposed rule does not reflect workplace relationships, where businesses increasingly share employees using third-party management companies, independent contractors, staffing agencies, or other labor providers. By narrowing the scope of joint employment, the department’s change will leave millions of workers vulnerable to unchecked violations of federal and state labor laws.

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Illinois troopers plan undercover patrols dressed as construction workers (IL)

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BY WQAD DIGITAL TEAM
UPDATED AT 08:29 AM, MAY 7, 2019

EAST MOLINE, Illinois — Illinois troopers plan to start dressing up like construction workers as they patrol work zones.

“Somebody is going to get hurt,” disguised Illinois State Trooper Ron Salier said. “That’s why we’re out here. We are trying to make a difference and educate people.”

The undercover patrols were set to begin Monday, May 6 in conjunction with Work-Zone Safety Week, which lasts from May 6th through May 10th.

“It’s not about writing tickets,” Illinois State Trooper Jason Wilson said. “It’s not about pulling people over, it’s about keeping people safe.”

Wilson says so far in 2019, 19 trooper cars have been hit. 17 of those cars were pulled over on the side of the road.

“Reminding drivers the human element that they are actually driving through,” Wilson said. “This is a work zone. Imagine if you were at your office and somebody drove through at 80 miles an hour.”

According to the Illinois State Police, troopers will be watching for speeders, distracted drivers and other violators in construction zones. The campaign is called “Operation Hard Hat.”

“Our hope is the plain-clothes Trooper doesn’t observe any violations. That would mean drivers were operating their vehicles safely,” said Distict 7 Commander Captain Jason Dickey. “Sadly, that will probably not be the case.”

Up until now, patrols in work zones have been in marked vehicles.

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Pritzker signs ban on local government ‘right-to-work’ laws (IL)

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By Peter Hancock – Capitol News Illinois
04/12/2019, 04:52pm

SPRINGFIELD – Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday signed into law a bill that prohibits local governments from enacting so-called “right-to-work” laws that are aimed at weakening the power of labor unions.

“The Collective Bargaining Freedom Act makes it abundantly clear that we have turned the page here in Illinois,” Pritzker said during a bill-signing ceremony in his statehouse office. “From the start, right-to-work was an idea cooked up to lower wages, slash benefits and hurt our working families. Right-to-work has always meant right to work for less money, and it’s wrong for Illinois.”

The first right-to-work laws in the United States were enacted in the 1940s, in the immediate aftermath of World War II, when soldiers were returning home and the U.S. economy was shifting from war production to civilian manufacturing.

Marc Dixon, a sociologist at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, said during an August 2018 interview that different arguments have been used over the years to campaign for the laws.

The first states to adopt them were primarily in the South, he said, where the laws were used to weaken labor unions, especially the Congress of International Organizations, or CIO, which were actively supporting civil rights legislation for African-Americans.

Later, in the 1950s, he said, they were supported by people who claimed certain labor unions embraced communist sympathies or had ties to organized crime.

More recently, supporters have argued for right-to-work laws on the basis of free speech. As more and more blue-collar workers aligned with the Republican Party, supporters have argued that workers should not be forced to join unions that, broadly speaking, tend to support Democrats.

The bill that Pritzker signed Friday came in response to a local ordinance adopted in north suburban Lincolnshire in 2015. It provided that workers could not be compelled to join a labor organization as a condition of employment within the village.

A U.S. District Court judge struck down that law in 2017, ruling that federal law allows only states to regulate collective bargaining. And in March 2018, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision. But other federal circuits have ruled that local governments may enact local right-to-work laws, making the issue ripe for a U.S. Supreme Court review.

Asked about that during the bill-signing, Pritzker said he is confident the new Illinois law would be upheld.

“The law as it is does not allow a state to hand this responsibility down to local communities,” he said. “This bill actually just establishes what is the law today, so I believe that that would be moot, essentially, at the Supreme Court.”

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In Illinois, GCs could be on the hook for subs’ unpaid wages (IL)

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AUTHOR – Kim Slowey
PUBLISHED – April 2, 2019

Dive Brief:

  • The Illinois House of Representatives this month passed an amendment to the state’s Wage Payment and Collection Act that could make general contractors responsible for the wages of their subcontractors’ employees. The state Senate will now take up the bill.
  • The liability for a subcontractor’s unpaid wages would lie with the direct contractor – the company in contract with the owner – even if the direct contractor has paid the subcontractor in full.
  • The law as proposed would also apply to lower-tier subcontractors and cover fringe and benefit payments owed to third parties on behalf of employees. Just as in most other civil actions, the direct contractor’s property could be seized in order to raise the money necessary to pay back wages and benefits.

Dive Insight:

In addition to wages and benefits, the direct contractor would be responsible for interest on those payments, but not fines and penalties. The proposed regulation would give direct contractors the right to examine the records of subcontractors and lower-tier subcontractors in the course of the project to ensure that they are paying their employees.

…

Such legislation can give state officials extra teeth in pursuing payment for those workers left in the lurch by unscrupulous contractors. In California, where GC’s liability for subs’ unpaid wages was enacted for contracts signed on or after Jan. 1, 2018, officials have been aggressive in addressing wage theft violations.

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