Invariably, on most busy construction jobsites, you will have people occasionally wander onto the job who really have no business being there. Most jobsites will have a point of entry where these people, from salesman to people looking for a job, will be redirected to contact the main office.
It’s also not unusual for the occasional state inspector to wander onto the property. These individuals, whether they are a MOSH inspector or someone verifying prevailing wage, are taken very seriously and are quickly and courteously ushered to the main trailer to speak to the person in charge.
So when an official- looking person walks onto a jobsite, flashes credentials that they are with the Foundation for Fair Contracting and demands to see certified payroll reports, daily logs and any sign-in sheets, jobsite supervisors understandably jump to attention, believing they are dealing with an official public agency. They are not.
This confusion of official authority is what the FFC is counting on. Because if the contractor knew they were dealing with a union-fronted organization whose sole purpose was to target non-union contractors and bog them down with having to produce literally hundreds of private documents in the slim hope they might unearth a violation, they might be less forthcoming.
Let’s reiterate. A private organization walks onto a job site demanding private records, of the contractor’s project and its employees. Not only this fishing expedition unethical, it’s also illegal.
The Foundation for Fair Contracting clearly has an agenda. The unions say they can’t compete with non-union contractors when it comes to bids for construction jobs. Is this their way of creating less of a competition for jobs?
If their mission is to end corruption, shouldn’t they stop receiving their information in shady and unethical ways? Tricking someone is not the way to do it. If they want to audit contractors they should be auditing both union and non-union. As we stated in articles in the past, it is extremely easy to unknowingly violate prevailing wage laws. If it is that easy for non-union contractors, don’t union contractors fall under the same risk?
“Our compliance efforts serve to curb the corrupt act of underbidding and disenfranchising, not only the workers on a project, but also the tax payers who are expecting a timely, safe and high quality product”
Lawyer: they never investigate union contractors- more of a campaign targeted at non-union contractors.