Subcontractors at work on area construction projects

Ninety-five percent of all construction is done by a subcontractor! Now, is that not an interesting statement?

Building has been great this year, and other than a labor shortage of qualified personnel, all has gone pretty well. Still, looking for the right personnel to do the right job seems to be the sign of the times.

It would be nice to have a larger labor pool to draw on when a company wanted to expand and needed those qualified personnel to go to work.

Not only does the subcontractor worry about his labor force, there is the question of his contracts and all the legal language they contain.

It has been the intent of the Southwest Missouri Subcontractors Association to help the subcontractor stay abreast of the ever-changing pitfalls in those contracts.

Through the affiliation of our organization with the Subcontractors Association of Missouri in St. Louis, there has been legislation introduced to help the subcontractor be better protected in these contracts.

As in AIA document A401, the subcontractor is bound to the same obligations to the owner as the general contractor, even though the subcontractor has had no contact with the owner.

Also, the American Subcontractors Association in Washington, D.C., has introduced legislation to stick the "Pay if Paid" clause in the A401 document. Because the subcontractor is doing the work for the general contractor, he should receive monies owed, from the general contractor, in a reasonable time frame.

This has been one of the major headaches in contracts for a long time

The subcontractors association has met with both architects and general contractor groups to try and show that there is a great concern over some of the wording in contracts