M Onthly Report
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Report Monthly J u n e 2 0 1 5 August 1: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Reporting Deadline Owners of certain commercial buildings What Are the Direct Costs to verify data – there may be no direct located within the City of Chicago must Associated With Compliance? costs. comply with the new City of Chicago • For IFRA members who do not have in- Building Energy Use Benchmarking In addition to time needed to gather house staff who hold accepted credentials Ordinance by August 1, 2015. energy and property data, in 2015, designated by the City to verify reported the first year (and every third year Who Must Comply? data, they, minimally, may incur out-of- thereafter), buildings must have data pocket costs to hire a third party to verify The Ordinance requires commercial reviewed by a City-certified in-house data. and municipal buildings with between or third-party professional engineer, 50,000 and 250,000 square feet and licensed architect, or other trained Where Can I Find More residential buildings with over 250,000 individual to verify that data has been Information About square feet to submit verified reports on tracked and reported correctly. The cost Benchmarking Requirements? whole-building energy use and specific for this service varies according to the building attributes. The City has issued number and complexity of the buildings Visit www.cityofchicago.org/ "2015 Notice of Upcoming Obligation to under consideration. energybenchmarking. If you own a Comply" notices to applicable property • For IFRA members with in-house commercial building located in the City of owners over the past few weeks. staff who can be assigned to gather Chicago that is 50,000 square feet or larger and report required building attri- and you did not receive notice from the When Must Buildings Comply? butes and energy usage, and also who City of Chicago, contact the Help Center Property owners must file their 2015 have in-house staff who hold licenses at: [email protected] or reports by August 1, 2015. Starting in call (855) 858-6878. or certifications required by the City continued page 5 2 2016, annually updated reports must be filed before June 1. Inside IFRA –GMA Annual Conference Wed.-Thurs., October 7-8, 2015 2015 FMI-FIAE-NGA Washington Conference .......................... Pages 2-4 New Location: Glen Ellyn Village Links Golf Course and Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace Dairy Academy ........................Page 5 Mark your calendar for the IFRA-GMA Annual Conference, Wednesday and Legislative Update ............... Pages 6-7 Thursday, October 7-8. This year's golf outing will be held at the Village Links, Glen Ellyn, and our educational programs and Expo will be at Drury Lane. See page 8 for more details. More program information and registration forms will be mailed to you and is also available on our website. FMI-FIAE-NGA Washington Conference he Annual Washington Public In addition, the supermarket industry health coverage. On January 8, 2015, Affairs Conference, sponsored operates, on average, at a one-percent the House of Representatives passed by the Food Marketing margin, so health coverage and H.R. 30 to raise the ACA “full-time” Institute, Food Industry compliance costs affect grocery stores’ threshold to 40-hours/week. Similar TAssociation Executives and the National ability to maintain quality employee legislation (S. 30) has been introduced Grocers Association, was held April 15- benefits, a robust workforce and by Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and 16, 2015. Over 250 retailers, wholesalers competitive consumer prices. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) in the Senate. and state association executives gathered ACA Full-Time Definition Removing ACA Mandatory Auto in Washington D.C. to address a number of key issues affecting our As the supermarket industry has Enrollment industry. undergone compliance with the ACA’s The ACA’s mandatory auto-enrollment 2015 employer mandates, many provision (Sec. 1511) is unnecessary Our sincere thanks to the following grocery stores have had to minimize the and redundant with other ACA IFRA member companies who potential for unintended tax penalties provisions, as well as other benefits and participated in the labor laws, and would Conference: Affiliated result in employees Foods Midwest, who are double- Associated Wholesale enrolled in coverage Grocers, Fareway with both employers Stores, Hy-Vee, and employees paying Leamington Foods, premiums for coverage Niemann Foods, the employee does not Potash Markets and want or will not use. SuperValu. The IFRA delegation Menu Labeling met with Senator Expansion Richard Durbin, On December 1, 2014, Senator Mark Kirk, FDA published final Congressman Rodney regulations that expand Davis, Congressman a chain restaurant menu Adam Kinzinger, labeling law (§ 4205 Congressman P.L. 111-148) to capture John Shimkus and Left to right: Gerry Kettler-Niemann Foods, Bob Wiegert-Schnucks, Steven grocery stores. While legislative assistants Harris-FMI, Brian Jordan-IFRA, Ken Casaccio-Leamington Foods, Art the menu labeling law to Congressman Potash-Potash Markets, Senator Dick Durbin, Brendon Cull-Kroger and was adopted to provide Mike Quigley, Matt Foley-NGA. chain restaurants with Congressman Danny Davis, 20 or more locations preemption from Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth that could be assessed under the ACA, various state and local menu labeling and Congresswoman Robin Kelly. A if part-time employees work more laws, FDA’s final regulations regulate number of key issues affecting our than 30 hours per week. Rather than grocery stores, general merchandise industry were discussed including: allowing store managers and employees stores and many other non-restaurants to make scheduling decisions based on to conduct nutrition analysis, labeling Supermarket Priorities in the staffing customer service or employees’ and significant recordkeeping for any Affordable Care Act (ACA) availability or temporary desire for extra “restaurant-type” food by December The Patient Protection and Affordable or fewer hours, stores need to safeguard 1, 2015. Initial compliance will cost Care Act (ACA; PL 111-148) remains themselves to the limitations of the law’s the supermarket industry hundreds of a challenge for food retailers and existing 30-hour per week threshold. The millions of dollars. The rule will also wholesalers, an industry that employs Congressional Budget Office estimates dramatically reduce consumers’ food 3.5 million people – many operating that increasing the ACA “full-time” choices, particularly fresh, minimally under variable schedules based on threshold will increase workers’ take- processed options. FDA has not employee needs and customer demand. home pay with negligible impact on provided enough time or guidance for ©Illinois Food Retailers Association/Page 2 more adequate time for federal, state and municipal health officials to review, collaborate and train to ensure consistent regulatory oversight is aligned with the simultaneous release of FDA nutrition labeling regulations for vending machines, and is consistent with the compliance timeline granted by FDA for past implementation of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA). Other concerns include: n Removing ACA’s mandatory auto- enrollment (Sec. 1511) n Streamlining employer reporting requirements n Protecting voluntary employee well- Gerry Kettler and Congressman Adam ness programs (H.R. 1189/S. 620) Kinzinger Brian Jordan, Art Potash, n Restoring access to over-the-counter representation election procedures, the Congressman John Shimkus and Ken (OTC) medicines (H.R. 1270/S. so-called “ambush elections” regulation, Casaccio. 709) and the Department of Labor’s (DOL) supermarkets to meet the December 1, n Providing relief from ACA fees and highly anticipated initiative on overtime 2015, enforcement deadline by federal, taxes to employers offering health rules. The DOL regulation will likely state and local officials, or customer and coverage make significant changes to how media inquiries. n Addressing ACA 30-Hour Work much employees must be paid if the Department’s rulemaking downgrades FDA needs to provide additional time Week certain workers from supervisory status for the supermarket industry to receive Labor Policy to non-exempt, which would make them and review agency guidance for menu eligible for overtime pay under the Fair labeling at supermarkets, grocery stores Supermarket Industry Impact Labor Standards Act (FLSA). and similar retail food establishments The supermarket industry and the rest of and move the enforcement date to the employer community are faced with Ambush Election Rule December 1, 2016. Providing a two- the National Labor Relations Board’s The NLRB’s “ambush election” final year compliance period also provides (NLRB) final rule relating to union rule, which is scheduled to become effective April 14, 2015, would dramatically shorten the timeframe for a union election from the current average of 38 days, down to as little as 10 days. This abbreviated schedule would effectively hinder an employer’s ability to communicate with employees about the pros and cons of unionization. Moreover, the Board’s “ambush election” rule undermines worker privacy, since it would require employers to disclose the names, home addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of workers — as well as other sensitive personal continued 2 Ken Casaccio, Caleb Gilchrist of Congressman Danny Davis' office, Art Potash and Brian Jordan ©Illinois Food Retailers Association/Page 3 FMI-FIAE-NGA Washington Conference