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On July 15, 2009, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued guidance for employers and workers in response to recent inquiries about waivers of discrimination claims in employee severance agreements.

Attend ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ's HR Professionals Conference and Training & Development Conference October 27-29, in Atlanta and learn what you need to know to be successful as an HR or T&D professional in the construction industry.  With expert speakers providing compliance-related guidance for HR professionals, and interactive sessions that are guaranteed to help T&D professionals sharpen your skills and solve common challenges, you will learn best practices for maximizing efficiency and effectiveness.  Register and learn more at www.agc.org/hr_td.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division (WHD) has announced the location of five additional prevailing wage conferences, following its inaugural conference, which drew more than 400 participants to Washington, D.C.  Each conference will be offered free of charge to employers.

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), responsible for ensuring that contractors doing business with the federal government do not discriminate and take affirmative action, recently opened registration for its 2009 National Forum (Forum).  The Forum will be held on September 9, 2009, in the Washington, D.C., area.  The specific location has not yet been announced.

The rate of union representation in the construction industry increased modestly in 2008 for the second consecutive year following a steady decline in the decade preceding 2006.  Using Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, the Construction Labor Research Council (CLRC) reports in its latest biennial report on union representation trends that the percentage of workers represented by a union in 2008 was 16.2 percent.  This compares with 14.4 percent in 2007 and 13.6 percent in 2006, according to BLS data.

On July 14, 2009, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council issued a notice of proposed rulemaking implementing President Obama's Executive Order 13502, by creating new FAR contract clauses to be included in Federal contracts should an agency choose to require a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) on a particular Federal construction project.  Comments are due on August 13, 2009.

ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ held a regional meeting with the National Construction Alliance II (NCAII) on July 13 in Chicago, IL.  About 50 members and staff from various collective bargaining chapters in the Mid-America Region of ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ's Executive Leadership Council attended, along with Operating Engineers General President Vince Giblin, Carpenters General President Doug McCarron, Union Contractors Committee Chairman Jim Clemens, ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ Union Contractors Committee Staff Associate Denise Gold, and NCAII Executive Vice President Ray Poupore.

Construction HR professionals have been burdened with the responsibility of properly handling reductions-in-force (RIFs), lay-offs and furloughs; sometimes at a moment's notice.  These situations can be difficult to handle legally, practically, and emotionally.

Resolving a thorny issue faced by employers finding themselves threatened with a discrimination claim regardless of what action they take, the Supreme Court on June 29 held that an employer that acts in a race-conscious fashion to avoid being sued under a disparate-impact theory, must have something more than a good-faith belief that such a suit was likely - otherwise, it has violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. 

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), responsible for ensuring that contractors doing business with the federal government do not discriminate and take affirmative action, will soon begin conducting compliance reviews of construction contractors who receive funding and grants from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).