The Program has received several questions regarding the definition of “project workforce” as defined in Final Order at 155, ICC Docket No. 23-0714. Program participants are encouraged to use the FAQs below to understand the impact of this change.
What is the new definition of “project workforce” as defined in Final Order at 155, ICC Docket No. 23-0714?
For the purposes of the Minimum Equity Standards, the IPA defined “project workforce” as the following:
“Employees, contractors and their employees, and subcontractors and their employees, whose job duties are directly required by or substantially related to the development, construction, and operation of a project that is participating in or intended to participate in the IPA-administered programs and procurements under Section 1-75(c) of the IPA Act. This shall include both project installation workforce and workforce in administrative, sales, marketing, and technical roles where those workers’ duties are performed in Illinois.”
The Agency received feedback from Program participants regarding challenges with the current approach. According to feedback, the breadth of occupations included in the project workforce makes it difficult to fully define which persons and subcontractors are part of the workforce for a given project, particularly if some of those positions include significant work performed out of state or are services requiring a relatively small portion of project hours (e.g., a surveyor assessing a site for two hours). Therefore, the ICC approved this change Final Order at 155, ICC Docket No. 23-0714:
For purposes of this definition, ‘directly required by or substantially related to’ shall be construed to be any direct employee of the Approved Vendor, Designee, or Indexed REC contract holder, or any contractor and its employees whose contract exceeds 5% of the REC Contract value. Employees of contractors below that threshold may be counted toward the MES on a voluntary basis, but then all contractors below the 5% of REC contract value threshold must be included.
To further clarify, an entity’s project workforce for a given Program Year will include individuals employed, either directly or through contractors or subcontractors, during that Program Year who work on projects either already participating in Illinois Shines or that are intended to participate in Illinois Shines. The scope is any work performed in service of a project during that Program Year, across types of projects and types of work.
Is the 5% REC contract value threshold based on the aggregate value of all REC contracts associated with a company, or is it based on the REC contracts associated with specific projects?
The 5% REC Contract value threshold for project workforce is project-specific. For example, if a subcontractor worked on 8 projects, the percentage of REC Contract value would need to be determined for each of those projects.
Would a staffing agency that is subcontracted with a company be considered when applying the 5% contract exception?
The 5% contract exception applies uniformly to all subcontractors, regardless of whether they are hired through a staffing agency. This means that either all subcontractors with less than 5% of the REC Contract value are counted towards the project workforce, or none are.
Can a company choose which subcontractors with less than 5% of the REC Contract value to count towards its project workforce?
When determining its project workforce, companies may either count all subcontractors with less than 5% of the REC Contract value, or none at all. It is not permitted to choose to count some contractors under the threshold towards the project workforce and not others.
Thank you!
Illinois Shines Program
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