ABC Southeast Pennsylvania Chapter member, The Tri-M Group, LLC, Kennett Square, Pa., April 14
won a legal challenge against the Delaware Department of Labor (DDOL) for discriminating against out-of-state contractors by not recognizing their registered apprentices under the state’s prevailing wage law.
With the help of ABC’s Southeast Pennsylvania Chapter and ABC’s Construction Legal Rights Foundation, Tri-M filed a law suit claiming DDOL was in violation of the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. The Commerce Clause prohibits states from unjustifiably discriminating against or burdening interstate commerce.
“Tri-M is very pleased with the outcome of this case,” said Jim Horn, president and CEO of Tri-M. “This precedent-setting decision will help maintain free and open competition among the states.”
Tri-M, a Pennsylvania-based electrical contractor that maintains a registered apprenticeship program in Pennsylvania, began working on a project in 2005 in Delaware and employed its own apprentices, paying them according to Delaware prevailing wage requirements. After a visit from a site inspector, DDOL cited Tri-M for being in violation of its prevailing wage law because its apprentices were not registered under the Delaware apprenticeship program.
After performing a self-audit and paying certain apprentices back wages in accordance with the discriminatory DDOL regulation, Tri-M sued DDOL claiming that the prevailing wage law and the DDOL apprenticeship regulations allow in-state contractors on public projects to pay reduced wages to their apprentices while denying out-of-state contractors that same right.
The court ruled that since Delaware’s apprenticeship rules contain a specific requirement for an in-state presence by a company, they create a bias against out-of-state contractors. In a precedent setting decision, the judge ruled in favor of Tri-M and ordered that DDOL change its apprenticeship requirements for out-of-state contractors.