in the lobby By: zoe baldwin
Our industry, for the most part, has been blessed to be able to continue working. Governor Murphy’s executive orders kept public works jobsites open and thousands of workers employed as much of the state was forced to shut down. UTCA CEO Bob Briant, Jr. worked very closely with the Governor to keep us working and is grateful for the Administration’s partnership and consideration during these unprecedented times.
ESSENTIAL WORKER PROTECTIONS Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assemblyman Tom Giblin have introduced legislation creating a rebuttable presumption that should an essential employee contract coronavirus, the contraction of the disease is considered work-related and fully compensable for the purposes of “ordinary and accidental disability retirement, and any other benefits provided by law to individuals suffering injury or illness through the course of their employment,” which includes workers compensation. The bill does contain language referencing job duties that require interaction with the public, but it is not as strong as we would like.
As for the legislature, public participation in the age of social distancing has taken on a different look. The Senate and Assembly now convene virtually, and interested parties can register to call-in and provide testimony remotely. There have been several voting sessions and committee hearings now as the body works to pass legislation relating to the pandemic and frontline workers. At this time, they are not hearing legislation relating to other issues, but are expected to start taking on recovery-focused legislation in the coming weeks.
The bill has been passed by the Senate Labor Committee and will now advance to a vote by the full senate. During the committee hearing, the chairman and committee staff consistently referenced the bill as being applicable only to essential workers whose job entails public interaction, despite the weakness of that clause. UTCA has expressed concerns on behalf of the industry and has been working with the Senate President.
FISCAL FOCUS One bill recently signed into law extends the State fiscal year to September 30, three months past the usual June 30 deadline. The move buys the state more time to analyze the impact of the coronavirus and stay-at-home orders on tax collections and to rewrite the budget accordingly. The Governor initially revealed his proposed budget in February and the budget committees had begun to hold hearings, but the process was interrupted by the shutdown.
While we certainly understand that this legislation is not ideal, there are a few important things to note:
The state’s financial outlook is vastly different than it was before the outbreak of COVID-19 and in response, the Department of Treasury has frozen nearly $1 billion of current spending from its planned $41 billion FY20 budget. UTCA continues to work closely with the Administration, Legislature, and relevant departments to ensure all capital program operations will be fully funded and proceed without issue.
• OSHA has stated that this will not be considered in the OSHA 300 log
GIVE ME JUST A LITTLE MORE TIME The legislature has also moved to codify and supplement some of the Governor’s executive orders, such as recent legislation that effectively extends state permits to protect existing approvals from expiring due to the COVID
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crisis. This legislation is a corollary to Governor Murphy’s Executive Order 136, which relaxes DEP deadlines for issuing environmental permits as well as reporting deadlines for recycling and solid waste facilities.
ays can feel like weeks recently with the deluge of news and executive orders as the state works to cope with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. This missive comes to you from mid-May as Governor Murphy and the legislature look for strategies to reopen safely and begin the State’s steep climb toward economic recovery.
• The bill explicitly states that “any workers’ compensation claims paid as a result of the rebuttable presumption shall not be considered in calculating an employer’s Experience Modifier Rate or otherwise affect an employer’s insurance premium rate for the employer’s workers’ compensation policy” and
• UTCA fought hard to classify our jobsites as essential so we could keep working; now, we must keep those arguments in mind as we ask to be removed from the consequences. ONE BID PACKAGE TO RULE THEM ALL As we have previously reported, one of UTCA’s highest legislative priorities is to standardize bid packages for projects bid under Local Public Contracts Law. We are pleased to report that the effort is steadily advancing following a recent meeting with interested parties including the Municipal Engineers, the League of Municipalities, the
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