Whatever Happened to Maintenance Work:
Craig S. Sharnetzka
Whatever Happened to Maintenance Work: What Boroughs and Townships need to know about Pennsylvania’s Prevailing Wage Act
By: Attorney Craig S. Sharnetzka
For those municipalities concerned with the rising cost of road repairs, those costs are going to increase even more. In a recent decision handed down by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, milling a road to remove asphalt before repaving constitutes construction, not routine maintenance, subjecting the work to Pennsylvania’s Prevailing Wage Act.
On June 4, 2008 in the case of Borough of Youngwood v. Prevailing Wage Appeals Board the Pennsylvania’s highest court handed down a landmark decision requiring municipalities to pay prevailing wages on road resurfacing projects. In this case, the Borough of Youngwood listed the work to fix and repave streets as maintenance work as cited in PennDOT’s publication-9. Therefore, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that has been used for years to interpret the exceptions for maintenance as published in the Pub-9 can no longer be used in complying with the Prevailing Wage Act.
Under Pennsylvania law, all workers employed to perform public work on projects over the $25,000 threshold are required to be paid prevailing wages. The Act defines public work as construction, reconstruction, demolition, alteration and/or repair work other than maintenance work, done under contract and paid for in whole or in part out of the funds public body.
The Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs (PSAB) is recommending that all municipalities contact the Department of Labor & Industry in order to receive determination as to whether a project over $25,000 is considered maintenance or construction.
