IEC Member Newsletter July 15, 2020
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IEC Member Anniversaries for July
Contractor Members:
308 Solutions Group - IEC member for 2 years
Basecom, Inc. - IEC member for 13 years
Ben Brown Electric, Inc. - IEC member for 1 year
Benchmark Electric Solutions - IEC member for 1 year
City & County Electric - IEC Member for 26 years
CLP Electric, LLC - IEC member for 3 years
Denton Electric, Inc. - IEC member for 13 years
Epical Electric Services, LLC - IEC member for 2 years
HEC Electrical Contractors - IEC member for 11 years
M.C. Dean, Inc. - IEC member for 7 years
Phillips Electric & Associates, Inc. - IEC member for 1 year
Stults Electrical, Inc. - IEC member for 12 years
Associate Members:
ALT Fabrication - IEC member for 9 years
Bonded Lightning Protection Systems, LTD - IEC member for 29 years
DSI Southwest - IEC member for 9 years
Eaton - IEC member for 31 years
Elliott Electric Supply - IEC member for 18 years
Tekk Force - IEC member for 10 years
TradeSTAR, Inc. - IEC member for 14 years
United Rentals - IEC member for 29 years
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IEC Apprenticeship Program
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IEC Fort Worth/Tarrant County is now taking applications year round for the apprenticeship program, but we still have deadlines....
- Application deadline for fall classes is July 30, 2020.
- Applications accepted for January classes July 31, 2020 through December 17, 2020.
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IEC Educational Training Classes
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Mark your calendars or register for these great classes coming up in 2020!
OSHA 10 Hour
- August 14 and August 15, 2020
Arc Flash/70E Training
August 28, 2020
CPR/1st Aid
- September 25, 2020
Foreman Training
- September 25 & 26, 2020
Silica Training
- October 9, 2020
Fall Protection
- October 23, 2020
IEC Contractors and their employees receive discounts on all continuing education classes.
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Renew Your Electrical License
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The state of Texas requires all licensed electricians to have a current electrical license (Master, Journeyman or Apprentice License).
4 hour Continuing Education
classes for electrical license renewal are available online. 4 hour continuing education classes also held weekly at the chapter training facility. Visit our website or click the appropriate registration button below for registration and more information.
Remember to log on to the
TDLR website
to pay the fee to renew your electrical license. IEC submits the renewal information for CE courses completed with IEC.
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Take a look at the outstanding webinar sessions IEC is offering in July and register today.
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IEC 14th Annual Clay Shoot
Thursday, November 5, 2020
Defender Outdoors Clay Shooting Ranch
Morning Shoot
Special Thanks To Our Sponsors
Lunch Sponsor
Sunstate Equipment
Platinum Sponsors
Eco-Staff, LLC
Milwaukee Tool
Target Sponsor
ABB, Inc.
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Tentative dates for Upcoming IEC Events
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September 18 & 19, 2020
IEC Annual BBQ
October 8, 2020
IEC Fall Golf Tournament
December 3, 2020
IEC Christmas Party
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Electrical Industry News and Safety
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INDUSTRY NEWS
Electrical Construction & Maintenance
One of the downsides of the electrical services industry is not every client company is safety oriented. In fact, some have downright appalling conditions. Let us look at some examples that a firm in Tennessee ran into: Boxes of fluorescent lamps stored in equipment closet (mid-size factory).
ForConstructionPros.com
It has been several long months, but the U.S. construction industry may finally be rebounding from COVID-19. In May, the largest monthly increase in new construction jobs was recorded since the U.S. government began tracking this data. This comes as welcomed news since the first cases of the virus were noted in November 2019.
READ MORE
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Disinfecting and Cleaning Hot Line
Tools to Reduce Exposure to the Covid-19 Virus
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To help protect personnel from the spread of the COVID-19 virus while using Hastings Hot Line tools, the following recommendations are suggested.
- Follow your company's work methods and procedures while maintaing proper distancing recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
- Follow local, state, Federal and OSHA health guidelines.
Instructions:
Wipe with 70% Isopropyl Alcohol (Isopropanol) applied with a clean cloth or a spray bottle. The disinfectant may be applied onto fiberglass poles and rods as well as all plastic parts, plastic cover-up, meters, rubber blankets and covered jacket cable.
Per Federal guidelines, surfaces must remain wet for a minimum of 30 seconds to kill the virus.
After 30 seconds and while the surfaces are still wet, wipe all surfaces dry with a clean cloth or paper towel. To prevent spotting on plastic parts, surfaces must be wiped dry before the disinfectant dries.
After all surfaces are dry, wipe the fiberglass surfaces with Hastings Hot Stick Wipes part #10-188 or the Hastings Hot Stick Wax part #10-091.
It is not recommended to use other disinfecting products as they may have damaging effect on the hot line tools that could lead to electrical tracking.
Article by Hastings Hot Line tools & Equipment
Submitted by J.L. Matthews Company, Inc.
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CLIENT ALERT
(By Spike Cutler, Cutler-Smith, PC)
Paid Sick Leave Ordinances -
CITY OF AUSTIN'S APPEAL
DENIED
BY SUPREME COURT!
This may be the death-knell for city-based "paid sick leave" ordinances, including Dallas' and San Antonio's.
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You'll recall the City of Austin's ordinance mandating paid sick leave for employers who have people performing work in the City; San Antonio and Dallas passed similar ordinances.
The details of the Ordinances are similar, and an example is set forth in the Client Alert attached below - employers who have people working in the Cities of Austin, San Antonio and Dallas are affected, both by the mandated paid time off, and (maybe even worse) by the burdensome, costly and invasive compliance procedures associated with the ordinance.
The ordinances passed in Austin and in San Antonio have each been challenged in state court filings, and the Austin ordinance had been enjoined by the Third Court of Appeals, pending review by the Texas Supreme Court. The Injunction was based upon the conclusion, by the Third Court of Appeals, that the Austin ordinance violated the Texas Constitution and was at odds with Texas' minimum wage statute.
For now, then, it appears that the Austin ordinance is dead.
As a practical matter, then, both the Dallas and San Antonio paid sick leave ordinances are also
unenforceable
, and may be dead as well.
The City of Dallas had continued to pursue enforcement of its ordinance, even faced with a strong likelihood that such enforcement would be both costly and fruitless because of the pending appeal of Austin's ordinance, but following suit filed by the Texas Public Policy Foundation in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas, that court issued an Injunction against enforcement of Dallas' Paid Sick Leave ordinance on March 30, 2020.
That court ruled:
It is further ORDERED that the Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction (Dkt. #3, #21) is hereby GRANTED. The City of Dallas’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance, Dallas, Texas, Ordinance No. 31181; Municipal Code § 20-1–20-12, is ENJOINED and unenforceable. No officer, agent, servant, employee, attorney, or other person in active concert with the City of Dallas may enforce the Paid Sick Leave Ordinance against any business or entity pending the resolution of this case.
A copy of the Injunction Order is linked below.
The Dallas Paid Sick Leave ordinance is NOT IN EFFECT, unless and until the US District Court reaches a decision authorizing its enforcement, and as this matter sounds in state law, unless the Austin case has a new (and very surprising) change, it doesn't look like that will happen.
It appears that the Paid Sick Leave ordinances, as they are currently crafted, are dead.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Look for the socialist-leaning "Workers Defense Project" (the activist organization behind all three Paid Sick Leave ordinances) to try to recast the ordinances such that the cities can still enforce them. In addition, of course, the composition of Texas courts (including the Third Court of Appeals in Austin) can and will change with the political winds, and that could affect the outcome both of of future ordinances, and any challenges they may face.
We will keep you informed of any developments on this matter!
See attached Documents.
For a Copy of the Dallas Ordinance Injunction,
CLICK HERE
Cutler-Smith, P.C.
12750 Merit Drive * Suite 1450 * Dallas, Texas 75231
Tel. 214-219-0800 * Fax 214-219-0854
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Coming Soon: 2020 National Electrical Code
In 2020, TDLR will adopt the 2020 NEC as the electrical code for the state of Texas and establish it as the "minimum standard" for all electrical work in Texas covered by the Act.
The proposed effective date will be September 1, 2020.
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Is COVID-19 Fakery a Federal Crime?
“The Atlanta Office of the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a criminal complaint against a man who allegedly falsely told his employer that he had COVID -19, and then sent a phony doctor's note to the employer. According to the affidavit in support of the DOJ complaint, the employer had to shut down to have the facility sanitized, and had to send home at least four other workers who had been in close contact with the alleged miscreant -- with full pay, for 14 days. These actions cost the employer more than $100,000.If the allegations are true, then the employer deserves legal recourse. But you may wonder how the U.S. government determined that this was a federal crime.”
Full Article
Constangy Brooks
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CDC Issues Reopening Guidance for Offices – “Change the way people work”
The CDC offers various categories of advice, which we summarize below, highlighting particular statements of interest:
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OSHA Revises COVID-19 Enforcement and Workplace Illness Recording Policies
“After initially easing its enforcement and recording rules in light of the COVID-91 pandemic, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has reversed direction, with increased in-person workplace inspections and recording obligations. Revised Enforcement Guidance – On April 10, 2020, OSHA issued an Interim Enforcement Response Plan, setting forth the instructions and guidance to OSHA personnel with regard to handling COVID-19- related complaints, referrals and severe illness reports. On-site inspections were essentially limited to situations involving high risk of transmission, with non-formal phone/fax investigations for those involving employees in medium or lower exposure risk jobs. In an updated Enforcement Guidance, effective May 26, 2020, OSHA states that it is increasing in- person inspections at all types of workplaces, although it will continue to prioritize COVID-19 inspections.”
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Cybersecurity and Small Business
It’s nearly impossible these days for businesses to operate without the help of Internet-connected devices, which exposes them to cybercrime. It’s the small- to medium-sized businesses that are especially vulnerable: half are victims of cybercrime and nearly two-thirds of those victims go out of business.
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Hackers increasingly target small businesses because there is a low risk they will be caught and a high probability they will be successful.
Maintaining personally identifiable information (PII) on a computer connected to the Internet creates a nearly unavoidable risk. More than likely, names, addresses, and employment information are stored. If PII is acquired by someone without the authority to do so, that may result in a data breach.
Banking, credit, and vendor account information is also vulnerable. Even if that valuable information is not stored on an Internet-connected computer, employees who have access to it can be duped into handing it over to criminals.
Article submitted by Federated Insurance
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Complimentary webinar hosted by Enquiron®, provided by Federated Insurance®
Cannabis in the Workplace
Tuesday, July 21, 2020, 12:00 p.m. CT 60 minutes | Advance registration required
(This is a two-part webinar.)
In this second of a two-part series on Cannabis in the Workplace, we will cover safety-sensitive positions; drug testing and drug policies, and will provide practical examples with fresh, up-to-date insight on how employers are meeting these challenges. We will review the latest legal challenges provide practical tips your organization can use today.
Recommended Participants:
HR Professionals, Risk Managers, Managers, and Supervisors
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How Low Interest Rates May Impact Your Life Insurance Goals
When deciding how much personal life insurance coverage you need, it’s important to look at a number of factors, including how much of your income you want to replace, the amount of debt that needs to be paid off, and any additional needs specific to your beneficiaries. Another factor you should also consider is what type of investment your beneficiaries could choose to make the funds last.
When you purchased your personal life insurance policy, you may have assumed that those funds could be invested at a 6 or 7 percent interest rate. And based on that rate, you might have assumed that the funds would last long enough to support your loved ones for the long term. Unfortunately, interest rates have been dropping over time, and currently, the rates for stable investment vehicles are quite low. In this economic environment, will your death benefit last as long as your beneficiaries will need it to meet their long-term goals and maintain their standard of living?
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THANK YOU!
2020 INDUSTRY PARTNERS
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IEC Mission
Our mission is to offer quality education and safety programs, governmental involvement and business information to help our members excel.
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