In April of 2020, Governor Northam of Virginia signed Senate Bill 838 and House Bill 123. These bills amend the Virginia Wage Payment Act and are designed to support workers and Virginia’s economy as it rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, these updates significantly increase potential penalties against employers who may not be properly paying their employees and create additional responsibilities for Virginia’s general contractors (GCs).

What does the Wage Theft Law mean to GCs?

GC’s are now potentially liable for their subcontractor’s wage violations. As explained by Williams Mullen: “The Wage Theft Law makes it clear that it holds the GC to be an “employer” of its subcontractors’ employees for purposes of ensuring proper pay practices.  In turn, employees under the law can sue GCs and hold them jointly and severally liable for the subcontractor’s violations.”

Below are a few key points to note regarding exceptions and applicability:

• The law applies to all commercial and multi-family projects over $500K, but not to single family residential.
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• The law went into effect July 1, 2020.
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• Any employee claiming a violation must show the GC knew, or should have known the sub was not paying employees properly.
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• If the court finds that the employer knowingly failed to pay proper wages, the employee is granted up to 3x the amount of wages owed.
  

How can the GC protect themselves?

Outside of having to consult with their legal advisors about the law, GC firms will need to consider how to document and archive who’s on their sites at all times, including any classifications per person, so they have workforce construction data to support any arising claims. Since the Wage Theft Law allows for the availability of increased damages for prevailing employees, it could bring an onslaught of new claims in Virginia. To stay protected, the collection and archiving of construction data that shows who was on each project (and when) will help support general contractors and limit costly litigation.

5 ways Eyrus can Help…

The Eyrus Platform can support GCs with VA’s Wage Theft Laws with the below capabilities:

• Create a Centralized Construction Workforce Management Software Database: Using the Eyrus solution, GCs gain a detailed and real-time site directory of everyone that’s been on site with their necessary information including employers.
• Track Classification per Person: For further protection, add classifications per person and subcontractors during registration to ensure compliance with employee classification laws.
• Construction Automation for Timesheets: With BLE badges or hard hat beacons, create construction automation solutions for everyone's time on site for easy access to hours per person and subcontractors. This construction data can be used for attendance validation when needed.
• Track Specialized Training per Person: When registering people with Eyrus, include any programs or training (such as VA BEST, or subcontractor apprenticeships) to easily report on total hours or people with training completion.
• Digitize Daily Reporting with Custom Questions: Invite foreman and team leaders to submit their daily report using the Eyrus solution. Foreman can see their own attendance data and answer custom questions per project created by the General Contractor.

In addition to supporting general contractors with the collection and management of their workforce construction data, Eyrus provides construction worker safety benefits and features, real-time construction data and zoning, virtual constaccess control, and support for COVID-19 protocols.

If you would like to learn more about supporting your firm with comprehensive workforce solutions, click the link below to send us a message, or reach out to KnowMore@eyrus.com.