Department Of Labor Finalizes Its Site For Davis-Bacon Coverage
In the last issue of the Construction Focus, we set forth the proposal of the Department of Labor to expand Davis-Bacon Act coverage to premises that are not physically a part of the site of the work. This is the Department of Labor’s response, as issued at the end of the Democratic administration, to the ongoing dispute with the courts over what is the coverage under the Davis-Bacon Act.
The Davis-Bacon Act establishes prevailing rate requirements for federal and federally assigned construction projects. The Act specifically states it applies to prevailing rates to be paid on the “site of the work.” Over the years, the courts have struck down efforts to expand coverage beyond that site. Undoubtedly, the Department of Labor is trying again. The Department of Labor acknowledges this rule has expanded this definition to include material and supply sources, tool yards, job headquarters and the like “where they are dedicated to the covered construction project and are adjacent, or virtually adjacent to, the location where the building or work is being constructed.”
Off-site transportation of materials to the site is not covered unless transportation occurs between the construction work and the dedicated facility located “adjacent or virtually adjacent” to the construction site.
Additionally, the Department will include within the site of the work those areas which have been specifically established for the performance of contract work and at which “a significant portion of the public building or work called for by the contract is constructed.” This is part of the Department of Labor’s ongoing effort to extend coverage to fabrication plants, batch plants, borrow pits, tool yards and the like when they are established specifically for the job site itself and are not part of a commercial establishment. Under the Act, truck drivers who haul materials or supplies from one location to another location of the site of the work itself are entitled to prevailing rates. Under the Department’s position, truck drivers who haul materials from a dedicated facility adjacent, or virtually adjacent to the work are also employed on the site of the work and are entitled to prevailing rates for the entire time spent working. The Department states, however, where the material delivery truck driver is exempt from coverage (e.g., hauling from a commercial site), they will not require payment of prevailing wages for that period of time where the truck driver is on the site for only “a few minutes at a time merely to drop off construction materials.”
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