A Long Island judge has scuttled a town’s plan to force local contractors to employ apprentices if they want work.
United States District Court Judge Denis J. Hurley converted
a previously imposed injunction preventing the Town of Oyster Bay enforcing the
order and made it permanent after no-one bothered to defend the controversial
code that would have required construction companies to have a state-approved
apprenticeship program when constructing or renovating private commercial and
residential buildings.
Contractors claimed the rule was unfair to small and minority-owned businesses and favored larger, unionized companies which typically do have apprenticeship programs.
“Local contractors faced serious economic harm if they were
to be precluded from competing for private projects,” said attorney Jon Farrell.
“Especially in the era of COVID-19, it is essential that contractors have
unfettered legal access to pursue work without unconstitutional restrictions.”
Farrell, an attorney with Meltzer Lippe, sued the town on
behalf of Hartcorn Plumbing and Heating, Inc. and the Long Island and New York
Mechanical Contractors Association after the plumber, who employs 50 tradesmen,
was notified by the Town in December of 2017 that he was ineligible for work on
a large private commercial project in Bethpage because it did not comply with
the then-recently enacted town code.
The controversial law required contractors working on
projects of 100,000 s/f or more to have a state-approved apprenticeship
program, which effectively eliminated most non-union competition and forced
developers to hire union contractors instead.
According to Farrell, the Oyster Bay Code favored
contractors with a union affiliated with just one large trade organization, the
Building and Construction Trades Council of Nassau and Suffolk Counties (BCTC).
Contractors affiliated with smaller labor organizations, or non-union
contractors, could not satisfy the Town’s requirements of having at least one
graduate within the last 24 months and at least one apprentice currently
enrolled.
In 2018, Judge Hurley said the code applied only to public –
and not private – projects, and that it was pre-empted by the National Labor
Relations Act. He issued an injunction
that suspended enforcement of the order against contractors working on private
projects with the caveat that the Town would make the necessary amendments to
the Code.
“After two years of discussions, delay and waiting for the
Town to amend the code, the Town never took any concrete action to effectuate
said change,” said Farrell, noting the judge converted his previously issued
preliminary injunction into a permanent injunction, despite the Town’s “strenuous
and vociferous objections.”
