Union Payroll: 5 Things You Need to Know

Any CIO of an Engineering, Procurement or Construction (EPC) company knows that the tools and solutions they utilize for their payroll need to be specific to the EPC world — construction payroll is simply not the same as any other industry. EPC companies are dealing with multiple stakeholders, including contractors who work within labor unions.

Processing payroll for construction is already challenging, but union payroll can add new stakes and challenges.

Here are five things you need to know about Union Payroll:

Each state is different

One of the things that makes construction unions so unique is that you can have contractors working on different jobs in different states all within the same pay. With each state comes different tax rates, fringes and compliance. Construction payroll software simplifies calculating union payroll with automatic calculations and formulas. No need to worry about errors stemming from juggling multiple taxing authorities or dealing with out-of-state unions.

Your Union is watching

In order to process Union Payroll, you need to make sure you know your union’s requirements. HR and payroll managers need to know pay periods, rate changes, multi-tiered pay rates, union payroll deductions and union payroll reporting. Payroll violations, incomplete data and miscalculations can lead to hefty violations or grievances. Make sure your payroll system and processes incorporate all of your union requirements. Look for construction payroll software that uses automatic calculations to account for all of the moving parts.

Handling Union payroll deductions takes flexibility

No union deductions are alike. Whether you are working with closed or open shops, or union or agency shops, keeping track of union deductions can be tricky. On top of that, union workers have a handful of variables that impact their pay and pay rates. Whether you are factoring in the different types of unions or seniority level, performance and pay scales, you want a construction payroll software that is flexible enough to easily set up multiple user-defined deductions to handle the many factors – and union payroll deductions – involve with union payroll.

You need to protect your data

When you utilize cloud-based services, you can provide employees with anything they need, wherever they are. Providing an employee self-service that utilizes cloud services is almost like offering 24/7 customer service and real time visibility. While this leaves union workers happy, offering easy accessibility can open your company up to data breaches. If employees feel that they are not protected, including their personal information and data, then they are more likely to get a union involved to file a grievance. So it’s vital to find a system that can safely secure all of your data and assets, including payroll information, leave/medical file and benefits.

Accurate time tracking matters

Given the specific union requirements for the workday and weekday, it’s vital to ensure accurate tracking of hours worked. Investing in a mobile time tracking system simplifies the process with easy approvals and accurate time tracking. But, it’s also important to invest in a construction union payroll software that generates quick and accurate compliance reports, tax filings, and new ACA reports. Investing in integrated systems can also provide accurate project reports with up-to-date labor and burden costs distributed to a job-costing structure. All of this helps companies cut costs, while staying within compliance and providing vital documentation to facilitate discussions with union leaders.

How CEM Business Solutions can help: For medium or large construction and EPC corporations managing multiple construction trade unions and contractors, CEM Union Payroll manages complex union calculations with an automated union payroll processing software. We utilize our experience with Microsoft and our customized Union Payroll module to handle any type of labor union payroll needs.