The Copeland Act requires contractors
and subcontractors performing work on federally financed or
assisted construction contracts to furnish weekly a statement with
respect to the wages paid each employee during the preceding week.
See 40 U.S.C. § 3145; 29 C.F.R. § 3.3(b). U.S. Department of Labor
(DOL) Regulations 29 C.F.R. § 5.5 (a)(3)(ii)(A) requires
contractors to submit weekly a copy of all payrolls to the federal
agency contracting for or financing the construction project, if
the agency is a party to the contract, accompanied by a signed
Statement of Compliance indicating that the payrolls are correct
and complete and that each laborer or mechanic has been paid not
less than the proper Davis-Bacon prevailing wage rate for the work
performed. Id. at § 5.5(a)(3)(ii)(B). The DOL has developed
optional use Form WH-347, Payroll Form, to aide contractors and
subcontractors performing work on federally financed or assisted
construction contracts in meeting weekly payroll reporting
requirements. Id. at § 5.5(a)(3)(ii)(A); see also, id. at § 3.3(b).
Properly filled out, this form will satisfy the requirements of
Regulations, 29 C.F.R. Parts 3 and 5 as to payrolls submitted in
connection with contracts subject to the Davis-Bacon and Related
Acts.
The DOL is changing its total
burden estimates from 5,025,040 responses, 4,700,000 hours, and
$211,000 to 7,196,056 responses, 6,596,385 hours, and $899,507 in
maintenance and operations costs. This results an overall increase
of 2,171,016 responses, and 1,896,385 hours and $688,507 in
maintenance and operations costs. This revised rule introduces no
new information collection requirements nor proposes any
substantive or material changes to the existing information
collection requirements noted above. However, the Department is
removing the requirement to report an employees complete social
security number and home address, which the Department estimates
will reduce the average reporting time from an average of 56
minutes per response to 55 minutes per response. Adoption of the
revised rule will reduce burden by 119,934 hours. The DOL has an
adjustment in the estimated burden, because the estimated number of
DBRA covered projects requiring submission of Form WH-347 or its
equivalent has increased from 27,310 projects to 39,109 projects.
Estimated operation and maintenance costs have increased, again due
to the higher number of DBRA covered projects and the fact that
prior efforts to calculate the burden did not separately state the
cost of copying certified payrolls for recordkeeping purposes.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.