Work, Money and Law Highlight MALMC Opening
Lake Ozark, Mo--Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway and Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Esther George highlighted the links between finance and the workplace at the opening session of the 31st Mid-America Labor/Management Conference at Camden on the Lake. The first day also featured Missouri Court of Appeals live hearings and workshops on labor law.
Galloway noted current audits of prevailing wage compliance by state and local governments in the state as well as looks at the more than 6,000 special taxing districts in the state. Ensuring compliance and transparent practices protects taxpayers, workers and law-abiding businesses, she said. Galloway shared her family background in both union and management construction careers provide her with understanding of the benefits of labor-management cooperation and middle-class jobs. She encouraged attendees to contact her with information on possible problems with state and local government operations.
George was praised by Pat “Duke” Dujakovich, president of the Greater Kansas CIty AFL-CIO and Labor-Management Council of GKC co-chair. Dujakovich serves on the national Federal Reserve Board Advisory Committee and said George is a leader at involving labor and other community leaders in advising the Fed on actual economic conditions.
The first woman appointed president of the Kansas City Fed, George pointed out the search committee hiring her was led by a labor leader, Terry Moore of the Omaha Federation of Labor. She pointed out that the Fed’s role in monetary stability gets extensive media attention, but the Fed is also charged with helping achieve full employment. The Fed’s economic researchers compile extensive information on labor markets and tries to assess the impact of Fed policies on employment.
George serves this year as a voting member of the Fed’s Open Market Committee, which sets interest rates. She supports gradual increases towards a normal rate so that incentives for excessive risk do not distort the economy, especially given continued economic growth. She did not dissent from the committee’s decision to hold the rate at 25 basis points at the last meeting due to the surprising May jobs report and uncertainty from the British Brexit vote. However, she believes that the strong June jobs report demonstrates economic growth could justify a small increase at the next vote.
The economy is giving mixed signals, particularly the workforce, she noted. Unemployment is 4.9 percent, workers are returning to the labor force, a record six million jobs are advertised as open, some employers complain about the lack of qualified workers and wage growth is again above inflation. Yet many workers face great anxiety and wage growth has been slower than in past recoveries, she pointed out.
Current weakness in energy commodity and related industries has cost jobs in that sector, but otherwise most of the economy is growing, according to George.
George’s explanation for the contradiction is that there is growth in high-skilled, high-paid jobs and low-skilled, low wage jobs but middle-skilled jobs, the basis for middle class opportunity, are disappearing so growth isn’t affecting all workers equally. Many of these jobs have been lost due to technology, global competition and changes in how businesses operate. Workers face the choice of pursuing higher skills through education or finding lower-paid work. Millions of formerly middle-class workers lack the skills for jobs that pay what they used to make.
The Fed’s tool of monetary policy may have done as much as it can to stimulate growth and employment, George said. Fiscal policies, such as infrastructure investment, increased education and training, tax clarity and regulatory changes likely would have the greatest future impact, but George emphasized those policies are up to elected leaders.
Conference attendees then moved to workshops. Vic Taylor, director of safety and training for Kansas City Power & Light Co., shared how human performance management can enhance workplace safety. He outlined techniques for creating error tolerant systems that can minimize the consequences of inevitable human error. He also recommended books by Todd Conklin and by Sidney Dekker. Dan Hubble, regional director for the National Labor Relations Board, provided a guide to fair representation standards under the National Labor Relations Act.
The economic theme returned as Matthew Capece, Carpenters, described the growing practice of payroll fraud in the construction industries. Subcontractors will use workers supplied by labor brokers, and pay them off the books defrauding the workers, workers compensation insurers and taxing entities of significant funds while making law-abiding contractors uncompetitive. Such techniques are now being used even on large and on government construction projects, Capece noted, and compound the fraud from illegally issuing workers 1099s rather than pay them as employees. In Kentucky, there is greater loss from payroll fraud than from robberies.
Capese said recent interpretations by the US Dept. of Labor and by the National Labor Relations Board of joint employer doctrine will be very useful in combatting such fraud, if resources are available to investigate it. One California contractor forced workers to give him back some of their earnings and is now serving prison time. More information is available at payrollfraud.net and on Facebook at Stop Payroll Fraud.
Attendees saw workplace law in action as a the Western Missouri Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in three labor-related cases. Appeals Judges Mark Pfeffer, Rex Gabbert and Gary Witt explained some of the workings of the Court of Appeals as well, noting that the average time from oral arguments to a decision has decreased from 100 days to 30 days in the past decade.
The cases included Schrock vs. Gan, a discrimination case that also involves questions of whether the Appeals Court has jurisdiction at this stage of the case; Timster’s World Foundation vs. Missouri Division of Employment Security, in which the foundation appealed the state’s determination that it employed workers rather than independent contractors; and Majors vs. Treasurer of the State of Missouri, a Second Injury Fund case hinging on whether a physician needed to make a specific determination to find that a worker has suffered a permanent total disability. Results of these cases, and all of its cases, can be found on the Court of Appeals web site, www.courts.mo.gov .
Workshops completed the afternoon as Mary Taves, National Labor Relations Board officer in charge of the Kansas City office explained each of the articles under the NLRA and how cases can be filed; and Barbara Rumph, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Region 6 director explored how and if the millennial generation is different from others.
The conference continues at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday. Many of the presentations will soon be available at the conference web site, www.malmc.org .