COVID-19 UPDATE 13
US SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION RULES ON PAYCHECK PROTECTION PROGRAM
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Interim Final Rule on the Paycheck Protection Program will be released shortly and at this time the U.S. SBA is accepting applications for this relief program. This program provides small business loans to pay for employee wages, which may be forgiven, if employees are retained for an eight-week period. The attached version is pre-publication. The regulations will go into effect once published in the Federal Register, which we anticipate will happen later today or early next week. Additional regulations and clarifications will follow these published rules.
Again, we suggest that you work with your professional advisors regarding these federal relief programs.
OSHA MODIFIES ITS GUIDANCE FOR RESPIRATORY PROTECTION
DUE TO N95 SHORTAGE
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued
interim enforcement guidance
to help address the severe supply shortages of disposable N95 filtering face piece respirators (N95 FFRs). The action marks the department’s latest step to ensure the availability of respirators and follows President Trump’s Memorandum on Making General Use Respirators Available. Here is the link to the U.S. DOL
https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/osha/osha20200403-0
U.S. DEPARTMENT Of LABOR ISSUES ADDITIONAL GUIDANCE FOR PAID SICK LEAVE AND EXPANDED FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE IMPLEMENTATION
The U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) issued additional guidance regarding the requirements of employers to implement the paid sick and medical leave for employees. The additional guidance can be found at
https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20200403
. The U.S. DOL also created a webinar for employers to view in order to help the implementation of the new employee protections. The webinar can be viewed at
https://dolwhd.cosocloud.com/pawkgwfawza0/
. In order to view the webinar, you will need to download Adobe Flash. For those who can not or do not want to download Adobe Flash, the U.S. DOL webinar slides can be viewed
HERE
on the UTCA website.
NJ DOT TO TRIAL TEST ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS OF DC-18 FORMS
The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) will begin a trial test to allow its contractors to submit digitally signed DC-18 forms. The test period will last for three months and will only be applicable to the NJDOT Central Region projects. The DC-18 forms must be digitally signed by using “Docusign” and must be submitted via email to
Yogesh.bahvsar@dot.nj.gov
and copy your RE. The NJDOT will review the results of this three-month trial period and decide if the process merits full adoption by the Department.
If you have any questions concerning this process, please contact George Lobman at
george@utcanj.org
or the UTCA office at (732) 292-4300.
WE NEED YOUR HELP WITH THIS INDUSTRY FUNDING ISSUE
As we have informed you, in addition to the NJ Turnpike proposing to increase tolls to fund an annual $1 billion capital program and an additional $342 million NJ Transit capital construction program, the South Jersey Transportation Authority (SJTA) is proposing to increase its tolls to fund a substantial increase in its capital construction program.
UTCA has been building support for this increase, but unfortunately the SJTA is receiving opposition. As an industry we must counter this movement and email our support for the SJTA toll increase. Please email in your support for the toll increase and share with your employees and colleagues.
CLICK HERE
to send your comments.
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If anyone has questions concerning this notice, please contact us at the UTCA office 732-292-4300.
