It is a fight to level the playing field to be able to compete for jobs and careers on the basis of skills and make available apprentice training to all. In 1973 Al Percy launched a class action lawsuit to give workers like him a chance to better their lot in life. It would also ensure the availability of skilled workers to build the infrastructure of the future.
developed to address the Percy vs Brennan decision and the adverse Lancaster decision and to provide affirmative action that would benefit employees on public work projects and it was submitted for approval to the Defendant United States Department of Labor. 30. By a letter of direction to me of June 14, 1984, the United States Department of Labor, Employment Standards Administration Wage and Hour Division advised that the provisions of the Program and their accompanying trust and adoption agreements were reviewed and it was the opinion of the United States Department of Labor that they qualified as “bona fide” fringe benefit plans within the meaning of the Davis-Bacon Act and the applicable regulations of 29 CFR Part 5. That craft apprenticeship for workers training to attain journeyman status was allowed to be offset against the fringe benefit requirements only if the US Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training (BAT) or the appropriate State apprenticeship council recognized by BAT has approved the apprenticeship program. 31. I have represented the Percy Class as the complaining party under 42 U.S.C. § 2000e–2(k)(1)(A)(ii) in presenting an Alternative Employment Practice which meets the Plaintiff’s burden of persuasion as the requisite demonstration described in subparagraph (C) as required by 42 U.S.C. § 2000e–2(k)(1)(A)(ii). 32. I chartered Oriska Insurance Company (“Oriska”) and obtained licenses to write workers’ compensation insurance, health and disability coverage with deductible loss sensitive provisions, along with Fidelity & Surety Bonding, the Percy Program. In fact, Oriska is the only carrier in the country with the licenses and authority to offer the Percy Program, Oriska Insurance Company was chartered in 1990 and received licenses in 1993 for the following lines of business: Health & Disability, Workers' Compensation, Fidelity & Surety Bonding, and Credit Unemployment Insurance, along with additional miscellaneous licenses. 33. On January 25, 1991, I obtained association approval for Oriska Corporation as an apprenticeship sponsor under regulation [part 601] and Article 23 of the New York State Labor Law, qualified under the 1937 National Apprenticeship Act section 1 (29 U.S.C. 50) under U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training (BAT) and C.F.R.T. 29, Subt. 8
A, Pt. 29 and Pt. 30. (the Fitzgerald Act). Registration of the Percy Apprenticeship Program under the regulation 12 N.Y.C.R.R. 601.8 that existed when the Oriska Corporation program was registered, remains in full force and effect 34. In 1991 I established apprenticeship programs as an Alternative Employment Practice to be provided with workers' compensation insurance coverage as part of risk-management and loss control by the insurance carrier. All employment is covered by workers’ compensation insurance. The Alternative Employment Practice set forth at (XI. ALTERNATIVE EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE" paragraphs 153 – 218, (XVI. THE PERCY PROGRAM, paragraphs 241 – 274, XVII. COMPONENTS OF PERCY PROGRAM paragraphs 275 – 276, XVIII. REGULATORY APPROVALS OF PERCY PROGRAM paragraph 277 – 280 of this Complaint), of this Complaint, incorporates apprenticeship training into the workers’ compensation insurance risk management, loss control and safety training of employees, by enrolling new entrants to the workforce to work alongside existing journeypersons, growing the depth of skilled workers, skilled workers whose ranks are being diminished through age and attrition. The workers' compensation carrier subsidizes the apprenticeship programs by recognizing the savings in reduction of losses which reduces the exposures and liabilities of the claims required to be paid by the workers' compensation insurance carrier. 35. I developed work processes for on-the-job training and related classroom instruction for skilled trades: carpenter, heating, ventilating and air conditioning, plumber, steam fitter, mason, steelworker, roofer, operating engineer, electrician, and skilled laborer. In development are personal care, health care workers, nurse aide, activity director, dining services, environmental services, home health aide, rehabilitative aide, medication aide, hospital maintenance worker, emergency medical technician, firefighters and other first responders, the list is virtually unlimited and supported by the library of the United States Department of Labor and the Library of Congress. 36. This Alternative Employment Practice gives the Percy Class an opportunity to compete for employment based on skills rather than the color of one’s 9
