Wall-Ceiling BCA -- Second 30-Day Report to Court -7!19!13-1

7/28/2019 Wall-Ceiling BCA -- Second 30-Day Report to Court -7!19!13-1

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

---------------------------------------------------------------XUNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff,

90 Civ. 5722 (RMB)

-against-

DISTRICT COUNCIL OF NEW YORK CITY

and VICINITY OF THE UNITED

BROTHERHOOD OF CARPENTERS andJOINERS OF AMERICA, et al.,

Defendants.---------------------------------------------------------------X

THE SECOND THIRTY-DAY REPORT REGARDING ELECTRONIC JOB

REPORTING AND RELATED COMPLIANCE PROCEDURES SPECIFIED IN

THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT BETWEEN

THE NEW YORK CITY DISTRICT COUNCIL OF CARPENTERS AND

THE ASSOCIATION OF WALL-CEILING AND CARPENTERS

INDUSTRIES OF NEW YORK, INC. ANDTHE BUILDING CONTRACTORS ASSOCIATION, INC.

District Council of New York Cityand Vicinity of the United

Brotherhood of Carpenters and

Joiners of America395 Hudson Street,

New York, NY 10014


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Introduction

The District Council submits this Second Thirty-Day Report pursuant to (1) the Decision

& Order entered on May 8, 2013 (Doc. 1315); and (2) the Decision & Order entered on June, 11,

2013 (Doc. 1332) in United States v. District Council, et al., 90 Civ. 5722 (RMB). This

consolidated report pertains to the progress of electronic job reporting and related anti-corruption

compliance measures specified in the District Councils collective bargaining agreements

(CBAs) with the Wall-Ceiling and Carpentry Industries of New York, Inc. (the WC&C) and

the Building Contractors Association, Inc. (the BCA). The WC&C CBA went into effect on

May 22, 2013 and the BCA CBA went into effect on July 1, 2013.

The Courts June, 11, 2013 Decision & Order provides that The District Council shall

file with the Court approximately every thirty (30) days after entry of this Order and

approximately every thirty days thereafter until further order of the Court a report describing (i)

the progress and effect of the electronic jobs reporting procedures and the compliance and

enforcement procedures under the CBA between the District Council and the BCA and the CBA

between the District Council and the WC&C; (ii) the anti-corruption enforcement efforts of the

District Council; and (iii) additional information regarding the CBA between the District Council

and the BCA and the CBA between the District Council and the WC&C pertaining to

enforcement of the Consent Decree. The reports may be consolidated with other report(s)

regarding anti-corruption mechanisms contained in other collective bargaining agreements.

The following describes the efforts put forth by the District Council to ensure compliance

under the electronic job reporting system and the progress and effect of the newly adopted

procedures contained in the WC&C and BCA CBAs. This Second Thirty-Day Report builds


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upon and supplements the June 7, 2013 First Thirty-Day Report (Doc. 1330), and familiarity

with that earlier Report is presumed.

Electronic Reporting

Beginning on May 22, 2013, and continuing to date, all Shop Stewards on WC&C jobs

are required to enter the work hours for crewmembers on their jobsite into the District Councils

electronic reporting system. Beginning on July 1, 2013, the same became true for Shop Stewards

on BCA jobsites. As discussed in the District Councils First Thirty-Day Report pertaining to

the WC&C CBA and reiterated below, Shop Stewards on WC&C and BCA jobsites have a

choice of supplementary options for reporting their hours. Primarily, however, Shop Stewards

are expected to report hours via a mobile computing tablet supplied by the District Councils

Business Representative Center. The Business Representative Center remains responsible for

distributing and tracking the electronic reporting devices. To date, six hundred seventy (670)

electronic mobile computing tablets have been deployed to Shop Stewards for use in the field.

The District Council also continues to provide training on the operation of these devices as

described in the First Thirty-Day Report. Presently, trainings are held two days per week. To

date, a total of 1,385 shop stewards have been trained on their devices.

The District Council continues to distribute Shop Stewards Record Books to Shop

Stewards on WC&C and BCA jobs. The Record Book allows Shop Stewards to record by hand

the hours they are reporting electronically. For reference, each Shop Steward Record Book also

includes information about contacting the Office of the Inspector General (IG) to report

violations. An example ofthe Shop Stewards Record Book was included as Exhibit 3 to the

First Thirty-Day Report.


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The District Council continues to allow Shop Stewards to report work hours via the

District Councils website. Duplicate links are featured on the District Councils website home

page and the IGs Office subpage. Each link connects Shop Stewards to the District Councils

Member Hours Reporting-Shop Steward Login where they may electronically submit the work

hours for their jobsite.

Finally, WC&C and BCA Shop Stewards may report hours by voice if necessary. They

may call the Out of Work List Office at the specially designated Report Hours Line: 877-971-

8890. The Report Hours Line is presently open every day (Sunday through Saturday) from

10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Experience Since Implementation

Since the date of the First Thirty-Day ReportJune 7, 2013the collective bargaining

agreement between the BCA and the District Council went into effect on July 1, 2013.

Therefore, the District Council now tracks all active WC&C and BCA jobsites as well as

separately assessing the number of those jobsites with Shop Stewards. The numbers used in

determining the below data on WC&C and BCA jobs was sourced from the new job numbers

created by the District Council Representative Center and dispatches of Shop Stewards via the

District Council Out of Work List.

As discussed in the First Thirty-Day Report, and more recently during the Courts

conference in this matter on July 16, 2013, a problem persists with respect to certain jobs that are

identified as not reporting hours. Some jobs identified as active have in fact been closed and

require no reporting. This error is attributable to a computer programming issue. The District


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Council is presently taking steps to correct this inaccuracy with its outside information

technology firm, Standard Data Corp. (SDC).

Working with SDC, the District Council has identified and rectified the programming

issues concerning the active jobs lists where actual closed jobs were continued to be reported. It

continues to address this issue on a day-to-day basis to ensure compliance. The District

Councils staffcontinues to work long and irregular hours in order to correct this problem and

has also advised SDC of the need for a quick and final solution. The District Council expects

that the matter will be resolved entirely and finally within ten (10) days of this Report.

It should again be noted that the SDC programming issue was largely responsible for the

inaccurate data that were included as Exhibits A and B to the Courts June 16, 2013 conference.

The July 16 exhibits were draft documents, while the updated documents attached to this Report

as Exhibit 1 and Exhibit 2 (regarding the WC&C and BCA, respectively) represent the most

current data, and the District Council continues to monitor this data with the assistance of its

technology vendor, SDC.1

1The following illustration of this problem in connection with the July 16 exhibits submitted to

the Court was observed: a sampling of the effect that the closed jobs had on the WC&C reporting

numbers was completed for July 7, 2013 and July 8, 2013. That two-day sampling showed the

following. On July 7, 2013, 86 jobs were identified as actually closed and therefore the accurate

number of active jobs was reduced to 261 from an initial daily total of 347. Of the 261 active

jobs on July 7, 2013, 245 were identified as having hours reported. Those without reportedhours declined from 102 to 16. Similarly, on July 8, 2013, 75 jobs were identified as actually

closed and the accurate number of active jobs was reduced to 282 from an invalid daily total of

357. Of the 282 actually active jobs on July 8, 2013, reported hours were received for 253 and

jobs with no reported hours declined from to 104 to 29. In the current data (Exhibit 1 at p. 3 and

Exhibit 2 at p. 3) jobs recurrently identified as active but not reporting hours decreased

significantly simply by purging the distorting numbers.


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After troubleshooting the process, the District Council will develop written protocols for

all parties involved in the data tracking process and anticipates submitting a copy of such

protocols to the Court in connection with its next scheduled Report.

It should also be noted, as described in the First Thirty-Day Report, that the District

Council will show no tolerance for Shop Stewards who continually fail to report hours via the

above-identified procedures. Recalcitrant Shop Stewards will be removed as the Shop Steward

at their respective jobsites and referred to the Shop Steward Review Program for further action

(up to and including stripping their Shop Steward skill designations).

Each District Council Shop Steward must review and sign an acknowledgement form

pledging their commitment to satisfying the electronic reporting programs requirements. (See

Exhibit 3 attached hereto.) Since implementation, the District Council has also made over one

thousand phones calls to Shop Steward to advise them of their personal compliance requirements

on a daily basis.

The following charts identify all active WC&C and BCA jobs with a District Council

Shop Steward by date from June 7, 2013 through July 12, 2013.2 Based on the charts, for the

WC&C, jobs were electronically reported at an overall average rate of approximately 84%

during this period. For the BCA, electronic reporting from the date of implementation (July 1,

2013) was completed at an overall average rate of approximately 64%.

2These charts reiterate the data in Exhibits 1 (p. 3) and Exhibit 2 (p.3) regarding jobs requiring a

shop steward (i.e., jobs that require three or more persons) and are published here for the Courts

convenience. These corrected numbers differ widely from those included in the exhibits to the

Courts July 16, 2013 conference.


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WC&C JOBS WITH THREE OR MORE PERSONS

Date Jobs Reporting Hours Jobs Not Reported

6/7/2013 336 268 68

6/8/2013 327 263 64

6/9/2013 323 259 646/10/2013 328 264 64

6/11/2013 331 266 65

6/12/2013 331 269 62

6/13/2013 333 268 65

6/14/2013 298 255 43

6/15/2013 293 244 49

6/16/2013 292 242 50

6/17/2013 302 253 49

6/18/2013 289 249 40

6/19/2013 297 257 40

6/20/2013 306 257 496/21/2013 311 255 56

6/22/2013 298 242 56

6/23/2013 292 241 51

6/24/2013 307 254 53

6/25/2013 316 261 55

6/26/2013 315 261 54

6/27/2013 302 255 47

6/28/2013 296 253 43

6/29/2013 280 239 41

6/30/2013 278 237 41

7/1/2013 289 249 40

7/2/2013 290 252 38

7/3/2013 289 256 33

7/4/2013 277 240 37

7/5/2013 275 241 34

7/6/2013 270 234 36

7/7/2013 271 234 37

7/8/2013 281 242 39

7/9/2013 284 247 37

7/10/2013 282 248 34

7/11/2013 288 254 347/12/2013 294 255 39


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BCA JOBS WITH THREE OR MORE PERSONS

Date Jobs Reporting Hours Jobs Not Reported

7/1/2013 111 78 33

7/2/2013 114 80 34

7/3/2013 114 75 397/4/2013 114 72 42

7/5/2013 115 73 42

7/6/2013 113 69 44

7/7/2013 112 68 44

7/8/2013 115 71 44

7/9/2013 119 77 42

7/10/2013 121 80 41

7/11/2013 124 83 41

7/12/2013 139 88 51

The tables below show the total number of all Shop Steward dispatches to WC&C and

BCA jobs from the Out of Work List for each of the following dates:

WC&C SHOP STEWARDS DISPATCHED

Date

Number of Shop

Stewards Dispatched

6/7/2013 16

6/10/2013 7

6/11/2013 13

6/12/2013 8

6/13/2013 7

6/14/2013 22

6/17/2013 8

6/18/2013 16

6/19/2013 5

6/20/2013 5

6/21/2013 13

6/24/2013 106/25/2013 12

6/26/2013 11

6/27/2013 5

6/28/2013 19

6/29/2013 0


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Date

Number of Shop

Stewards Dispatched

6/30/2013 0

7/1/2013 0

7/2/2013 5

7/3/2013 5

7/5/2013 0

7/8/2013 8

7/9/2013 2

7/10/2013 10

BCA SHOP STEWARDS DISPATCHED

Date

Number of Shop

Stewards Dispatched7/1/2013 4

7/2/2013 4

7/3/2013 3

7/5/2013 7

7/8/2013 5

7/9/2013 5

7/10/2013 7

Pursuant to Article VI, Section 2 of the WC&C CBA, and Article VII, Section 2 of the

BCA CBA respectively, one and two-person jobs do not require a Shop Steward referred by the

District Council. No Shop Steward completes electronic reporting through the methods

discussed above for these jobs. Exhibits 1 (at pp. 1-2) and 2 (at pp. 1-2) respectively show the

one and two-person jobs for the WC&C and BCA. There appears to be a large discrepancy

between the number of active one and two-person jobs and those reported. While the District

Council, as discussed above, has focused its efforts most recently on addressing Shop Steward

reporting on jobs with three or more members, the District Council plans to concentrate on the

discrepancy in one and two-person reporting within the next several days and submit to the Court

an amended report reflecting its findings and improvements. Specifically, the District Council


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has assembled a team to individually contact members working at unreported jobs and determine

the status of each. Those efforts should yield a significant reduction in the number of active but

unreported one and two-person jobs.

As discussed in the First Thirty-Day Report at page 7, the Out of Work List office uses

new forms, which signatory contractors complete to assist in tracking these jobs. The District

Council has ongoing plans to work with the associations and their membership in order to

comply with those reporting forms. The District Council maintains open communications with

the various employer-members of the WC&C and BCA to ensure that such forms are submitted

accurately and promptly. A meeting with WC&C and BCA representatives and contractors to

review the staffing and reporting of one and two-person jobs is forthcoming.

Finally, it should be noted that the BCA CBA at Article VII, Section 2, provides that, In

the event of any violation of the two (2) man rule (i.e., not reporting the job and/or employing

more than two (2) Carpenters without a Shop Steward), the contractor will lose the benefit of this

provision for the remainder of the term of the contract. The WC&C CBA at Article VI, Section

2(b) includes identical language. The District Council intends to monitor one and two-person

reporting closely and enforce this penalty if necessary. Employers that do not report one and

two-person jobs will suffer the loss of this arrangement.

Anti-Corruption Efforts

Continuing to build upon compliance efforts, the IGs Office carries on its efforts to

publicize Operation Watchdog, which was described in the First Thirty-Day Report at pages 6-7.

In addition to WC&C jobs, which provided forwatchdog monitoring beginning on May 18,

2013, the program became fully active for all BCA jobs on July 1, 2013. To recap, Operation

Watchdog grants each member the ability to check the hours reported by the Shop Stewards on


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responded to each of the twenty-one identified violations by filing a grievance under the

applicable CBA.

Finally, the IGs Office continues to closely monitor its anti-corruption hotline and email

address with respect to possible violations of the WC&C or BCA CBAs. To the extent that any

complaints have been submitted which could be construed as alleging non-compliance with the

electronic reporting system, the IGs Office has followed up on those complaints in the ordinary

course of its duties.

The District Council remains committed to ensuring the success of and compliance with

the electronic job reporting and anti-corruption program under all applicable CBAs.

Dated: New York, New York

July 19, 2013

Respectfully submitted,

Report Compiled by the Offices ofthe Inspector General,

Director of Operations,

Representative Center,

and the Out of Work List of theNew York City District Council of Carpenters

395 Hudson Street

New York, NY 10014

CONTACT:

Scott C. Danielson

Inspector General andAssistant Chief Compliance Officer

New York City District Council of Carpenters

395 Hudson Street, 9th Floor

New York, NY 10014212-366-3361

[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]

Documents

Wall-Ceiling BCA -- Second 30-Day Report to Court -7!19!13-1