Building Design and Construction Handbook - Merritt - Ventech!

CONSTRUCTION PROJECT MANAGEMENT 17.65
The contractor should do the following to deal most effectively with public
agencies. First, various members of the contractor’s staff should concentrate their
efforts and become experts on dealing with one or more agencies. For instance, the
person in charge of field operations should be the one to deal with the building
department and building inspectors. This person should become familiar with the
organizational structure of the building department and know the inspectors. Others
in the organization should be versed in dealing with city treasurers or comptrollers,
and still others with state or Federal agencies.
Second, up-to-date files and information should be kept and segregated on
agency regulations and procedures. For example, building department codes and
regulations should be obtained, and revisions of these should be maintained in the
contractor’s offices.
Also, it is very important that a personal relationship be established between the
contractor’s personnel and the members of the agencies with which the personnel
deal. Most agency personnel are willing to help when approached on a frank and
open basis.
17.23 LABOR RELATIONS
Proper labor relations on a construction job involve many facets of a contractor’s
ability. Such relations often are affected by the type of labor organization involved.
Most craft labor on jobs in large cities and in the industrialized portions of the
country is unionized. Most unionized employees on construction are members of
American Federation of Labor building crafts unions. Open-shop contractors, however,
often are able to perform work on a nonunion basis. In a few cases, local
labor unions of an industrialized type perform construction work.
Strikes. Construction labor strikes after expiration of a labor contract can place a
contractor in a difficult position. If the contractor is a member of a contractor’s
association, the association will handle the negotiations. If not an association member,
the contractor has one or two alternatives: Sign up as an independent contractor
on condition that the final terms of the agreement settled at the conclusion of the
strike will apply to the contractor’s agreement retroactively. Or the contractor can
continue working around the affected trade and hope that the job will not be delayed
or advanced too far from the normal job sequence.
Jurisdictional Disputes. Jurisdictional disputes between two crafts often make a
contractor an innocent bystander. Appeals may be made to the national headquarters
of the crafts involved, and machinery exists in such cases for resolution of such
disputes in the National Joint Board for the Settlement of Jurisdictional Disputes
and the National Appeals Board in Washington, DC. A simpler way is for the
contractor to file a charge with the nearest office of the National Labor Relations
Board.
Standby Pay. In many union contracts, a requirement is imposed on contractors
for standby pay for workers who may not actually be engaged in installing materials
or performing work because of a requirement that members of the union be assigned
to stand by for certain purposes. Examples of standby pay are pay for temporary
water (plumbers), for temporary electric standby to maintain temporary power and
lighting (electricians), and for steamfitters or electricians to maintain temporary