Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Labor is suing a Maryland demolition contractor for allegedly discriminating against black and Hispanic employees, The Baltimore Sun reported.
- The DOL claims that Potomac Abatement, which performs a significant amount of federal work, funneled 145 Hispanic employees into low-paying jobs based on race or ethnicity and fired 17 black workers due to race.
- Although the violations allegedly occurred between 2011 and 2012, the DOL Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs said that, according to its investigation, Potomac's "egregious behavior" is ongoing. The lawsuit seeks back wages and reinstatement for affected employees, and demands that Potomac develop a "compliant" equal employment opportunity policy.
Dive Insight:
The asbestos and lead-removal company denied the DOL's allegations and said it would cooperate fully in order to show that its "equal employment opportunity and affirmative action policies are being honored."
Earlier this year, a federal court in Connecticut ordered painting contractor Safety Marking to pay two former employees more than $1.5 million each for creating a hostile work environment and for race discrimination. The lawsuit alleged that the workers were subjected to "a pattern of abuse" for years, ranging from racial and ethnic insults and slurs to being passed over for promotions in favor of less-experienced white employees.
Diversity concerns are an ongoing issue in construction, as construction has struggled to draw minorities and women into the industry. In an EFCG survey of A/E/C firms of varying sizes, the group found that none of the surveyed firms had minorities in their executive suite. And a February report from the New York Building Congress reported that the percentage of women and minority workers in the city's construction industry dropped last year — a fact the city found "concerning."
Dealing with contractors that rack up these kinds of labor violations is what the Obama administration has said its new Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces (FPSW) Executive Order aims to accomplish. The FPSW outlines a phased-in policy that requires federal contractors to submit histories of labor violations for review prior to being awarded contracts of $50 million or more. That threshold drops to $500,000 in 2017. Industry associations are already pushing back against what they call the "blacklisting" rule, which they say is unnecessary and will put a significant financial burden on contractors, especially smaller ones that don't have room in their budgets to hire compliance staff. However, proponents of the rule say contractors without violations should have nothing to worry about.