• • HB 48 - Electrical fines increased
• • SB 49 - Prevailing wage for University of Delaware
• • SB 51 - HVACR fines increased
• • SB 52 - Sussex Tech tax rates clarified
• • HB 65 - COVID 19 unemployment update
• • ABC opposes National Apprenticeship bill
• • OSHA 300A log due March 2

HB 49 a bill that would increases the maximum monetary penalty for a sanction by the Board of Electrical Examiners' from $1,500 to not less than $4,500 was introduced and  voted out of the Senate Labor Committee this month. The current fine structure language states that a fine can not exceed $1,500.  ABC opposes this legislation due to tripling the fine structure in one year during a pandemic. Contractors are also having issues accessing information from the Division of Professional Regulations and the Electrical Board.  It now awaits a full vote in the State Senate. For a copy, click here. 

Top

SB 49 a bill that would mandate the University of Delaware, like other institutes of higher learning including Delaware State University and Delaware Technical and Community College, must comply with the terms of the Prevailing Wage Law for projects secured under the State Procurement Act. This Act ensures that laborers and trade unions working on public work projects at or for the University of Delaware enjoy the same protections of the Prevailing Wage Law as they would on any other project governed by the SPA. The bill is curtailed such that it will only apply to the University's designation as a "state agency" for the limited purpose of the application of the Prevailing Wage Law, and does not otherwise expand or limit the entity's duties and liabilities under any other governing statute.  For a copy of this legislation, click here. 

Top

SB 51, a bill that increases the monetary penalties for sanctions by the Board of Plumbing, Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Examiners to not less than $1,500 but no more than $3,000 was introduced and voted out of the Senate Labor Committee this month.  The current fine structure states not less than $500 but no more than $1,000. ABC opposes this legislation due to tripling the fine structure in one year during a pandemic.  Contractors have also had issues accessing information from the Division of Professional Regulations during this time.  The bill now awaits a full vote in the State Senate. For a copy of this legislation, please click here.

Top

SB 52 a bill that that revises Chapter 26 of Title 14, regarding the Sussex County Vocational-Technical High School District ("District") was introduced this month and does the following:
1. Revises the tax rate for the District and clarifies the acceptable use for the tax revenue.
2. Repeals § 2602(b) of Title 14 because the Tax Rate Review Committee has not been active in decades and it has effectively been replaced by the citizen budget oversight committee created under § 1508 of Title 14.
3. Revises the number of students who may be enrolled in the District.
4. It creates a preference for student admissions for children of members of the District's Board of Education.
5. Revises academic eligibility by requiring that accepted students remain academically eligible for promotion under the standards established by the Department of Education.
To review the legislation, click here. 

Top

SB 65 a bill that provides COVID-19 related relief to both claimants receiving unemployment benefits and employers who are assessed unemployment taxes was introduced this month and voted out of the Senate Labor Committee.  It extends the end date of the Secretary of Labor's COVID-19 related rulemaking authority. Section 1 waives the 13-week waiting period for the state to "trigger on" to pay extended unemployment benefits in periods of high unemployment. Section 2 establishes the 2021 new employer assessment rate, average industry assessment rate, and average construction industry assessment rate at the same rate as 2020 in order to avoid an increase in these rates as a result of the increase in unemployment claims due to COVID-19. Section 3 extends the provisions in H.B. 352 from the 150th General Assembly authorizing the Delaware Secretary of Labor to issue emergency rules amending the Delaware Unemployment Insurance Code to deal with the effects of COVID-19 and implement federal programs providing unemployment benefits to respond to COVID-19. Section 4 exempts unemployment compensation benefits received in 2020 from the calculation of Delaware adjusted gross income so that unemployment claimants will not have to pay state taxes on the benefits they received during the pandemic.  The bill now awaits a full vote in the State Senate. For a copy of the full legislation, click here. 

Top

ABC National recently wrote a letter expressing its  opposition to H.R. 447, the National Apprenticeship Act of 2021.

The letter noted the following: "ABC and its members are committed to providing apprenticeship programs for the construction industry that uphold the highest standards of safety and quality. Unfortunately, this bill would not achieve its goal of expanding apprenticeship opportunities and disadvantages many construction businesses throughout the country, including women-, minority-, and veteran-owned small businesses that have struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic."

ABC National is concerned that the bill allows a State Apprenticeship Agency to deny program registration reciprocity if a program does not meet the requirements of the state granting reciprocity. Allowing State Apprenticeship Agencies to deny registration to nationally registered programs would be a costly burden to place on these companies and is contradictory to the bill's purpose of promoting additional apprenticeships throughout the United States. ABC believes that full reciprocity should be granted to nationally approved programs seeking state registration.

ABC is also concerned with the bill's language on "related instruction," which is defined to include classroom instruction. The bill requires sponsors to set forth in their apprenticeship agreement how a program will compensate an apprentice for "related instruction." As sponsors are not currently required to compensate an apprentice for time spent in the classroom, a more in-depth analysis around this provision is required, as such a requirement could have severe impacts on sponsor capacity to provide apprenticeship opportunities.

For a copy of ABC's letter, click here.

Top

• Establishments with 250 or more employees that are currently required to keep OSHA injury and illness records
• Establishments with 20-249 employees in certain high-risk industries (outlined here) with historically high rates of occupational injuries and illnesses.

Top

Thursday
2/25/21
8:30 a.m.