• New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation last week designed to better enforce labor laws and regulations on public works projects. Employer groups have questioned its necessity and impact.
• The legislation creates a registration system for contractors and subcontractors that bid on and deliver public work, as well as private projects that receive subsidies from the state. It goes into effect immediately.
• Mike Elmendorf, president and CEO of Associated General Contractors of New York State, said that the bill didn’t line up with how contractors have bid on and won work. The group opposed the bill, but Hochul’s office agreed to a chapter amendment to address those concerns.

The law requires contractors and subs that want to win public projects to register with the Department of Labor and provide a series of disclosures about their business every two years. The goal is to ensure previous labor law and workers’ compensation law violations — such as skirting prevailing wage requirements — follow employers around via a publicly available database, thereby protecting workers from scofflaws.

Hochul said the “legislation will help ensure transparency, reduce fraud and ensure taxpayer money goes to contractors who treat their workers with dignity and respect.”

AGC and other state employer groups opposed the bill, Elmendorf said.

“At best, it was duplicative and at worst, it broke how public bidding works,” he said.

Elmendorf told Construction Dive that by requiring a list of...

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