Phila. City Council passes hire-in-Philly rule
For "first-time entry-level workers" at firms that work for the city, rent city property or accept city financing.
Phila. City Council passes hire-in-Philly rule
Joseph N. DiStefano
Private firms and contractors that do at least $25,000 in City of Philadelphia-funded business or receive city financial assistance will have to agree to try to hire "first-time entry-level workers" from a list of city residents, to do city-funded work, instead of using out-of-town or suburban employees, under legislation passed unanimously in City Council today.
Firms are free to hire off the city list if they can't find city workers within 10 days of starting their search. The bill also requires contractors to list "job requirements" so the city can collect data on the kind of jobs employers want to fill.
The bill looks like a compromise between an early Bill Green (D-At Large)-backed bill that would require at least half of tradespeople and non-professional workers hired by city contractors to be city residents, and objections by critics, including Jim Kenney (D-At Large), who said it was unfair to apply such a blanket law to blue-collar workers but not to college-educated professional employees.
Green was lead sponsor of the revised bill, which awaits action by Mayor Nutter.
Comments (60)
Another law that sounds good on paper, but will likely create unintended consequences.— everydayguy- All this will do is create a department filled with either partronage cronies or DC33/DC47 drones (all receiving DROP benefits) to "manage" the lists, issue toothless reports determining that this inane requirement is not being complied with to leverage kickbacks from persons desiring to be included on these lists, or from businesses wanting to be listed as compliant to be considered for a contract.
This is just a means of creating another another version of the corrupt entity created to "enforce" MBE/WBE participation.— Lancer248 - Hmm.... they better only hire people who are current in paying their taxes, which eliminates about 50% of the city's citizens— main liner
- This law wont work; people need to be hired based on merit. what will happen is there will be a constant eddy of unskilled entry level workers who are token hires and will recycle back to the bottom while the existing status quo of supposedly skilled journeymen, often drawn from non inclusive ranks, will have their positions preserved. Contrary to this law, the idea is to build up a well trained, sex/race/creed/color inclusive (organic) work force who, through merit based on attained skills, can earn a living, pay taxes, be happy and raise a family over a working life time. This bill merely preserves the status quo, the unskilled likely stay unskilled and the ostensibly skilled are protected. It will be interesting to see how it holds up when legally challenged.— oneadaysfine
- Suppose you're doing half a million dollars of business outside of Philly and you win a $25,000 city contract through competitive bidding. Does this mean all your new hires have to be Philadelphia residents just for the sake of a contract that's worth 5% of your overall business? I'm not sure that's what's intended, and it may be that this reporter hasn't explained things properly. Or it may be that Philly's coming up with a crazy proposal. If a company has to give preference to hiring Philly workers all for the sake of 5% of its business, then that company is NOT going to bid on Philly contracts and the City's going to pay a lot more in procurement because of the reduced competitiveness of the bidding. But maybe something's missing in this story.— CurrerBell
- @CurrerBell; I believe you are correct and that is one of the things that the law is designed to do, i.e. drive away more firms who are not in the correct political loop. Winners are certain politicians, union managers and some rank and file, and certain firms and losers are the most trade unions members, the other politicians, most taxpayers, minority workers trapped at the bottom of a given skill offering and excluded able firms. At the end of the day, the law will have to be changed. The undesirable risk for a firm is if the law is left as-is and selectively enforced like the prevailing rate law. That's protection for union management with teeth!— oneadaysfine
- This is a tragically stupid idea. What needs to happen is for the public transportation system to be improved such that city residents can more easily get to the suburbs, and suburbanites can easily get into the city. Right now, if you live in the western suburbs, there is no realistic way to get into Philly except to drive. And city residents who want to work in the burbs must count on sporadic trains with rare connections to office complexes, or the dreaded SEPTA suburban routes. Improve the transportation to and from the city, and stop limiting the intellectual capital (and tax dollars) available to Philadelphia!— Steffi1
Their vision stems from looking through the wrong end of a municipal drain pipe.- awful lot of union members live in the suburbs.— tony bell
- Scargosun:
I live in Philly and pay taxes in Philly, my son goes to a public school. I want some people in Philly to benefit from those taxes.
I still say if you don't like it, don't do business in Philly!— EIK - City employees can't live outside of the city, except for the police force; so, now, the city will hold hostage private contractors by forcing them to hire Philadelphia employees - is it fair? Maybe not. If Philly were a different kind of town it wouldn't be necessary, but it is troubled and so only the police can escape!!!!— Yob
- This may come as a great shock to some of you, but some of us live in Philly by choice!— EIK
- Philly is no more troubled than any other large city in the US and offers a better life than a number of them. Each urban area has some problems, they are not unique to Philly.— EIK
- This is simple. If you do not want to hire city residents, do not seek city contracts.— Philly Born
- How do I get on "the list?"— Pugh
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About this blog
Joseph N. DiStefano blogs about the latest news in the Philadelphia business community and elsewhere. Contact him at 215-854-5194.
Reach Joseph N. at JoeD@phillynews.com.
Joseph N. DiStefano
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