13D. On-the-Job Training

What The Law Requires: "On-The-Job Training" is training by an employer that is provided to a paid participant while engaged in productive work in a job that:

• provides knowledge or skills essential to the full and adequate performance of the job;

• provides reimbursement to the employer of up to 50% of the wage rate of the participant, for the extraordinary costs of providing the training and additional supervision related to the training; and

• is limited in duration as appropriate to the occupation for which the participant is being trained (taking into account the content of the training, the prior work experience of the participant, and the service strategy of the participant, as appropriate).

OJT Protections:

• On-the-job training contracts under this title shall not be entered into with employers who have received payments under previous contracts and have exhibited a pattern of failing to provide OJT participants with:

• continued long-term employment as regular employees
• wages and employment benefits (including health benefits) and working conditions at the same level and to the same extent as other employees working a similar length of time and doing the same type of work.

• An OJT participant shall not displace (including a partial displacement, such as a reduction in the hours of non-overtime work, wages, or employment benefits) any currently employed employee (as of the date of the participation).

• An OJT activity shall not impair an existing contract for services or collective bargaining agreement, and no such activity that would be inconsistent with the terms of a collective bargaining agreement shall be undertaken without the written concurrence of the labor organization and employer concerned.

• A participant shall not be employed in a job if:

• Any other individual is on layoff from the same or any substantially equivalent job.

• The employer has terminated the employment of any regular employee or otherwise reduced the workforce of the employer with the intention of filling the vacancy so created with the participant.

• The job is created in a promotional line that will infringe in any way upon the promotional opportunities of currently employed individuals (as of the date of the participation).

• No funds will be used for on-the-job training for any business that has relocated, until the date that is 120 days after the date on which such business commences relocation, if the relocation of such business or part of a business results in the loss of employment for any employee at the original location and such original location is within the United States.

Labor’s Perspective: On-the-job training can be used to expand workers’ access to high wage jobs or it can be used to perpetuate a revolving door of low-wage jobs with low-wage employers. Good OJT programs should have the following elements:

• consultation with union whose members have skills in which training is proposed so that training occurs in demand occupations

• concurrence by the union where the OJT affects a bargaining agreement

• preference for signatory employers, including those who participate in joint labor-management training programs

• no OJTs for employers who have violated labor laws, civil rights laws, health and safety laws or the Fair Labor Standards Act

• is well matched to the participants’ interests, experience, required working conditions and opportunities for self-sufficiency and family wage/benefits jobs

• has a curriculum that includes the specific skills to be taught

• is of a duration that is consistent with the skill to be taught

• combines 1) expert demonstration, 2) supported practice, and 3) independent work

• contains a high degree of interactive learning

• acquisition of portable skills; training is transferable to other employers

• is related to the extent of additional training required by the enrollee

• provides participants with regular counseling and support services

• are monitored to ensure that participants receive appropriate training and employers do not receive unnecessary subsidies. For example, employer invoices for OJT reimbursement should be co-signed by the participant who attests to the delivery of training and competencies described in the OJT contract.

• have strong placement and wage performance standards. Participants are paid at the same rate as others similarly employed.

• has sanctions in place to terminate contracts with employers who abuse OJT.