With South Main Street being eyed for potential development, construction projects will likely follow.

Two leaders of local unions met with the Board of Selectmen on Monday, asking it to consider adopting the Responsible Employer Ordinance, which they say would “weed out unscrupulous contractors.”

Ron Rheaume, business manager of New England Regional Council of Carpenters 1305, and James Pimental, organizer for the Local 3 Bricklayers Union, said the ordinance has been successful in Somerset, Fall River and New Bedford.

They said the ordinance would encourage apprenticeships and ensure that projects yield a trained and skilled work force at construction sites.

In addition, the ordinance aims to curb misclassification of workers and prevent abusive practices that sometimes develop because of the town’s obligation to accept the lowest workable bid for a project.

“Some contractors are awful,” Pimental said after the meeting. The REO would target those “bad apples,” he said.

The ordinance also addresses illegal immigration by requiring workers on construction sites to have proper documents that allow them to work in the United States. 

Cities and towns that adopt the ordinance name enforcement officers.

The penalties for violation of the ordinance vary; in most cases, a system of fines is set up.
Selectmen on Monday took the ordinance under advisement. The ordinance would be adopted as a town bylaw if approved.

“We don’t want to do this once and then come back again,” Selectman Lawrence N. Ashley said, noting that the language in the proposal must be tweaked to indicate who would enforce the bylaw.

Somerset Selectman Lorne Lawless is also a proponent of the bylaw.