Monthly Archives: June 2013

On July 20, 2013, the Philadelpia Union will honor our military heroes as part of their match against the Portland Timbers.  Local troops will be invited onto the field for a pre-game ceremony and provided a free ticket to the game through donations by local businesses and individuals.

Until very recently, contractors performing excavation and site preparation work did not have the right to file a mechanic’s lien in Pennsylvania unless a building or other improvement was actually constructed at the site. That rule abruptly changed on May 17, 2013 in a decision by the Pennsylvania Superior Court in B.N. Excavating, Inc. v PBC Hollow-A, L.P., et. al. Based on this decision, contractors now have the right to file mechanic’s liens in Pennsylvania for excavation and site preparation work even if a building or other structure is not ultimately constructed at the site. This is a significant change in the application of the Pennsylvania Mechanic’s Lien Law.

The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry recently rolled out a new program called “Make it Right”, which offers amnesty to both individuals who owe money for unemployment compensation overpayments and to businesses that are delinquent in unemployment compensation tax payments. The program, which established and authorized the Unemployment Compensation Amnesty Program (Amnesty Program) in June 2012, is an attempt to regain $356 million currently owed to the UC Fund. It will run from June 1, 2013 to August 31, 2013.

Kaplin Stewart attorneys will be offering the second in their series of presentations on OSHA Regulations on July 25, 2013.  This presentation , entitled “Working at Heights: It’s Not By Your Grandfather’s Rules Anymore”, will focus on the rules governing scaffolds, ladders, tying off, and other rules and regulations governing work at varying elevations.  The program will run from 7:30-9:00 a.m. at Kaplin Stewart’s Blue Bell office and breakfast will be served.

An emergency interim final rule issued by the US Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of Labor in April of this year has gone into effect. Under the new application, the 2008 methodology using a 4-tier wage system in determining wages for non-agricultural H2B workers is being replaced with the average wage from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Statistic Survey. The new rule permits employers to use wages calculated under the Davis-Bacon Act, but does not require that Davis-Bacon wage scales be used unless the H2B workers are working on federal construction projects. The rule also maintains the previously existing carve out that requires signatories to union collective bargaining agreements to pay the wage rates stipulated in those collective bargaining agreements.

Beginning May 7, 2013, all employers are required to use the newly released I-9 Form to verify employment eligibility for workers. Anyone using the form moving forward will be subject to penalties.

On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Senate passed Senate Bill No. 1, a $2.5 billion transportation-funding bill. The bill may increase construction opportunities within the state, but its fate remains uncertain since some are concerned about the unknown increased cost to motorists and businesses with fleets of vehicles.

News reports in the last several hours indicate that a building at the corner of Market and 22nd Streets in Center City Philadelphia has collapsed and buried between 8-10 people.  There was construction work going on in the area, including demolition work to bring one of the buildings down.  It is assumed, but officially unknown, whether the demolition work was the cause of the building collapse.

In Pennsylvania, a contractor may recover damages by the enforcement of a mechanics lien or by quantum meruit for work performed even where the contractor’s written home improvement contract was invalid.

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals held in January that President Obama’s 2010 recess appointment of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board was unconstitutional. In so doing, the Court concluded that valid recess appointments can only occur in intersession breaks of the Senate.