Court Opinion

ID: 9694987
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:03:02.208453+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:07.428372
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION BY
Judge BUTLER.
I respectfully disagree with the majority’s holding that “an error has occurred in this case and that at a minimum the Court should vacate the Board’s order and remand this matter for the Secretary to explain adequately the basis for his refusal *360to promulgate a wage rate classification for Residential Construction under the [Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage] Act [ (Act) 1] or to apply Davis-Bacon residential rates to the project.”
Initially there is no justification for defaulting to the Davis-Bacon rates when Davis-Bacon clearly does not apply. There is no dispute that the Davis-Bacon Act, 40 U.S.C. § 3142(a), applies to federally subsidized residential projects containing twelve or more units, and the project at issue, Anthony’s Place (Project), contains nine or ten units. In addition, the majority holds that the Secretary of the Department of Labor and Industry (Secretary) ignored and subverted the policy behind the Davis-Bacon rates by applying rates that would increase the Project’s costs. The policy behind excluding projects with fewer than twelve units from Davis-Bacon rates is to help small local contractors gain experience on small projects and help lower their costs. This policy, however, runs contrary to the policy behind the Act. The policy behind the Act has been reiterated by this Court as follows:
[W]e observe that the purpose of the Act is to protect workers employed, on public projects from substandard pay by ensuring that they receive the prevailing minimum wage. Every public body that engages in the construction of a public work project must receive a determination from the Secretary as to the prevailing minimum wage rates to be paid to workers.
IBEW, Local Union No. 98 v. Dep’t of Labor & Indus., 816 A.2d 1220, 1222 (Pa.Cmwlth.2003) (citation omitted) (emphasis added).
As the majority correctly states, the duty of the Secretary under Section 7 of the Act, 43 P.S. § 165-7, is to “determine the general prevailing minimum wage rate in the locality in which the public work is to be performed for each craft or classification of all workmen needed to perform public work contracts during the anticipated term thereof....” Adams County Interfaith Housing Corporation (ACIHC) requested a predetermination of prevailing wage rates that applied to the Project, and on November 28, 2006 the Bureau of Labor Law Compliance (Bureau) notified ACIHC that state rates for the classification of “Building Construction” applied, thereby fulfilling the Secretary’s duty. Accordingly, a remand is not warranted for the Secretary to explain the basis of his decision, as he did not abuse his discretion.2
ACIHC, upon dissatisfaction with said prevailing wage rate, should have filed a petition under Section 8 of the Act (Section 8), 43 P.S. § 165-8, within ten days of the determination, instead of filing a grievance under Section 2.2(e) of the Act, 43 P.S. § 165-2.2(e) on March 1, 2007. Section 8 is very specific in the procedure for obtaining a review of a rate determination. Moreover, 34 Pa.Code § 213.8(a) specifically states: “[u]nder section 2.2(e) of the act ... the Board will hear and determine grievances arising out of the administration of the act. Appeals from determinar tions of the Secretary are excluded from review under this section.” (Emphasis added).
*361The majority states in a footnote that ACIHC has not waived its right to appeal the rate determination because the Bureau’s February 2007 letter to ACIHC instructed it to file a grievance to challenge the Bureau’s decision. However, the letter actually stated:
An interested party may file a grievance with the Prevailing Wage Appeals Board challenging this opinion.... An interested party may also seek a hearing challenging a rate determination within 10 days from the publication and issuance of the specifications covering the contract for this project. A party challenging Labor and Industry’s prevailing wage rates has the evidentiary and legal burden of establishing alternative rates at a formal administrative hearing.
Reproduced Record (R.R.) at 11a (emphasis added). As the ACIHC was in fact challenging its rate, the correct procedure would have been to seek a hearing within ten days of the issuance of the rate wherein it would have the burden of establishing rates at a formal administrative hearing. That would have been the proper forum to introduce evidence such as the rates issued for married-student housing, as opposed to including it as an enumerated item in the grievance notice. R.R. at la-4a.
For all of these reasons, I respectfully dissent.
Judge SIMPSON joins in this dissent.

. Act of August 15, 1961, P.L. 987, as amended, 43 P.S. §§ 165-1-165-17.

. The Secretary, having discretion to issue prevailing wage rates, could only have abused his discretion by going outside the three rates already established, i.e., building, heavy and highway, having not done so, he was well within his discretionary authority.