Engaging DOL on Prevailing Wage Compliance Challenges
BACKGROUND: Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ("ARRA"), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration ("NTIA") of the Department of Commerce and the Rural Utilities Services ("RUS") of the Department of Agriculture are awarding grants totaling $7.2 billion to state and local agencies to expand access to broadband services in the United States.
The program administered by NTIA is known as the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program ("BTOP"), and the program administered by RUS is known as the Broadband Initiatives Program ("BIP).
NTIA is in the final stages of making grant awards to state and local agencies under BTOP, and is scheduled to complete the grant process by September 30, 2010. It is our understanding that grant recipients are in various stages of awarding contracts to perform work under BTOP.
Many of PCCA’s members are participating, or planning to participate, in the bidding process for contracts under these programs. In preparing their bids, however, our members are encountering a number of issues in complying with the federal prevailing wage requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act that apply to these contracts. Under that law, contractors must pay their laborers and mechanics not less than the prevailing wage rates and fringe benefits listed in the wage determinations issued by the U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL") for the classes of laborers and mechanics employed on similar projects in the area.
The Problem PCCA Members Face with Wage Determinations: Although it is the responsibility of the contracting agency to ensure that the appropriate Davis-Bacon wage determinations are included in bid solicitations and contracts, some of the solicitations have not included complete wage determinations, and our members are left to determine on their own which wage determinations will be applied to the work on which they are bidding. Moreover, the wage determinations issued by the DOL often do not include job classifications that accurately describe the work performed by our members' employees, resulting in inappropriate classifications and pay rates in excess of current market rates. Because of these problems, the PCCA members do not have the benefit of knowing the applicable prevailing wage and benefit rates when bidding for this work, resulting in significant commercial risk and uncertainty in the bidding and contract performance stages.
PCCA Should Request That DOL Resolve the Wage Determination Problems: PCCA would like to assemble a delegation to meet with DOL officials on an expedited basis to present these wage determination issues and to request DOL's prompt correction of these problems following a comprehensive, national approach. DOL can correct these problems by issuing wage determinations that are specific to these contracts and that accurately describe the work performed by our members. Securing DOL’s issuance of corrected wage determinations would greatly enhance PCCA members' ability to submit commercially successful bids on these projects.