Dive Brief:
Bechtel s Oil Gas & Chemicals division has entered into a conciliation agreement with the Department of Labor s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs and will pay $200,000 in back pay and interest to settle allegations of compensation discrimination at its Houston office.
The OFCCP found that Bechtel discriminated against 22 female employees by paying them less than male employees in similar positions 12 with the civil, structural and architectural engineer job title and 10 with job titles including control systems engineer supervisor II, electrical senior engineer I, project engineering senior engineer I and senior package equipment engineer. Bechtel, the country s top contractor by revenue, will also pay $50,000 in salary adjustments to female employees with these job titles.
Dive Brief:
With the goal of facilitating worker organizing and increasing union membership, Vice President Kamala Harris convened the first meeting of the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment last week.
Calling the administration proudly pro-union, Harris said the task force will look at ways to ensure that working people can organize and negotiate with employers.
The task force, which includes more than 20 heads of agencies and Cabinet officials including Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, is an effort by President Joe Biden to help reverse a nationwide decline in union membership and power.
Dive Brief:
The Associated General Contractors of America is putting pressure on the Small Business Administration to disclose more about how it s fielding Paycheck Protection Program loan forgiveness applications of $2 million or more, a process AGC claims is now taking up to eight months.
The AGC filed a Freedom of Information Act request last week to get data about how long it takes the agency to review applications, the steps involved in approving or denying requests and who is ultimately making the decision about the loans.
Michael Kennedy, AGC s general counsel, said the agency has been less than forthcoming about its decision-making. The process continues to be very opaque, Kennedy said. As time has gone by and the delay has increased, we ve become increasingly concerned about what those standards and procedures may be. An SBA spokesperson declined to comment.