Court rules against St. Pete in construction hiring ordinance case

One of the largest construction trade associations in the region is celebrating what it calls a big win against the city of St. Petersburg over a hiring ordinance it claimed imposed "stringent wage requirements" and had "severe financial penalties for non-compliance."

The regulation in question is called the Apprenticeship and Disadvantaged Worker Ordinance. The rule called for 15% of a project’s work hours to be allocated to apprentices and an additional 15% to be allocated to disadvantaged workers. The city defines disadvantaged workers as those “with a criminal record, veterans, the homeless, residents of the South St. Petersburg Community Redevelopment Area, those without a GED or high school diploma and someone who received public assistance in the year preceding employment.”

The Florida Gulf Coast Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors, with 23,000 members, filed a lawsuit in 2019 against St. Pete. “The city is asking companies to bid on projects, but they’re only able to utilize 70% of their own workforce,” ABC President and CEO Steve Cona III told the Business Observer in 2019. “They’re having to hire another 30% of the workforce that technically is unskilled. It becomes very problematic for our members who are trying to deliver a quality project, … and it’s not fair to the companies bidding on the project.”