If drywall and flooring could talk, they'd probably have a dark story to tell about Wisconsin's ongoing construction boom.

Behind projects big and small, say people close to the industry, there thrives an underground economy made up of contractors who cheat their workers out of wages and benefits to deliver projects on time and under budget.

At the forefront of the fight against worker misclassification and other forms of wage theft is a small team of private investigators who stalk job sites to root out worker abuses.

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Within the boundaries of Wisconsin there is an extensive network of power plants, refineries, electric transmission lines and pipelines. This critical energy infrastructure fuels Wisconsin's economy and must be protected.

 

Until recently, energy company security measures and procedures effectively protected this network. That is no longer enough. Facilities in the Midwest which produce, distribute or transport fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) are being intentionally damaged by individuals who want to disrupt the flow of this energy. Their lawless actions extend well beyond civil disobedience.

 

Four years ago, state lawmakers responded by creating stiffer penalties for trespassing on, and causing damage to, property owned, leased, or operated by energy providers. Under 2015 Wisconsin Act 158, the maximum penalty for: 

In July, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers led by State Representative David Steffen (R-Green Bay) and State Senator Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) introduced legislation that would extend these enhanced criminal penalties for trespassing on, and causing damage to property owned, leased, or operated by energy companies that operate gas, oil, petroleum, refined petroleum product, renewable fuel, water, or chemical generation, storage transportation, or delivery systems.

 

A Growing Workforce Trend

 

More and more often, public agencies are incorporating workforce hiring requirements into their construction contracts. For those who are unfamiliar, these stipulations typically require the contractors that are awarded contracts by the agency to employ a workforce that meets certain thresholds of demographic criteria. For example, one of the more common trends that local entities push for is an increased rate of local hires.

 

Typically, the contracting agency sets a benchmark on a project that the contractors must meet. In this example, contractors must maintain that a certain percentage of the workers on the project must reside within the city or county in which the project takes place (alternatively, the percentage of total hours worked on the project can be used as a measure). The primary motive of the agency here would be to ensure that the residents of the community are the ones benefiting most from public funds used on this project to maximize the return on taxpayer dollars. This discourages the outsourcing of skilled labor, a not-so-uncommon tactic that some contractors might try in order to cut recruiting and hiring costs. (Remember, the use of local labor is one of the reasons the Davis-Bacon Act was created in 1931.) The benefit that the public entity realizes from these hiring requirements is compounded. Not only are stable career opportunities created for local residents, but the workers' disposable income may contribute to the local economies and provide additional tax revenue that would have otherwise been displaced along with the transplanted workers once the project was complete.

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It's not only good policy. It's what people want.

 

Bucks County Reps. John Galloway, Perry Warren and other area legislators support bills that would address the problem of misusing the independent contractor designation.

 

By Chris English

Posted Sep 4, 2019 at 3:11 PM

 

Misuse of the independent contractor designation for workers, primarily in the construction industry, is costing the state and federal governments a combined total of about $300 million in lost revenue, two local state lawmakers said during a news conference Wednesday.

 

State Reps. John Galloway, D-140, and Perry Warren, D-31, are pushing for passage of two pieces of legislation that would address the problem. One, House Bill 716, would establish a joint agency task force on employee misclassifications. The group would investigate the practice and work toward creating solutions to reduce misclassification throughout Pennsylvania. That bill recently passed the House 198-0, Galloway said.

 

The other proposed bill, HB 715, would among other provisions tighten the definition of what constitutes an independent contractor to only allow use of the term if a worker's written contract is project and time specific, with no exceptions.

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