NRCA submits comments to OSHA regarding potential heat illness standard
NRCA joined with members of the Construction Industry Safety Coalition to submit comments to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s potential standard for Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor Work Settings. This follows OSHA’s review of the final report from the Small Business Advocacy Review Panel, in which two NRCA members participated last fall. The letter stressed that if OSHA decides to move forward with a new regulatory standard regarding heat-related injury or illness, it must provide maximum flexibility and contain performance-based criteria if the standard is to effectively prevent heat illnesses. This included a recommendation that OSHA consider a separate regulatory approach for the construction industry given the unique characteristics of construction worksites. NRCA will continue working with agency officials to ensure any new regulatory standard is effective in protecting workers and not burdensome for employers, particularly small businesses.
IRS announces program to pay back erroneous Employee Retention Credits at a discounted rate
On Dec. 21, the IRS announced a new program that allows employers who received Employee Retention Credits to pay back the credit at a discounted rate if they may have received the credits in error. Interested employers must apply by March 22. Third-party marketing campaigns may have led some businesses to believe they were eligible when they were not. The disclosure program allows repayment of 80% of the claim received.
When properly claimed, the ERC is a refundable tax credit designed for businesses that continued paying employees during the COVID-19 pandemic while their business operations were either “fully or partially suspended due to a government order, or had a decline or significant decline in gross receipts during the eligibility periods.”
The IRS also urges employers with pending claims to consider a separate program that allows them to remove a pending ERC claim with no interest or penalty. The IRS stated recently it already has received more than $100 million in withdrawals as the agency continues audits of this program. Additionally, the IRS mailed out 20,000 denial letters to ERC claimants earlier this month. For more information about ERC eligibility, see the ERC frequently asked questions and ERC Eligibility Checklist.
Department of Labor issues rule regarding project labor agreements in federal construction projects
On Dec. 22, the General Services Administration, Department of Defense and National Aeronautics and Space Administration issued a final Federal Acquisition Regulation that will require project labor agreements to be used for most large federal construction projects. Under the new regulation, which implements President Biden’s Executive Order 14063, project labor agreements will be required on “large-scale construction contracts”—defined as projects costing $35 million or more (an increase from the current threshold of $25 million or more). The final regulation includes a series of exceptions that allow federal agency contracting officers to opt out of requiring a project labor agreement in limited circumstances. The effective date for the regulation generally is Dec. 22, 2023, though some portions will take effect Jan. 22.
