A growing number of companies, pension funds and investment products are adopting responsible contractor policies (RCP’s) or union labor policies.

Pension funds may require that investments made in private equity or real estate include provisions requiring the paying of “fair wages” or “fair benefits”. They may define “fair benefits”, for example, as including “employer-paid family health care” or employee pensions.

There are also investment groups that market their products primarily to institutional investors that have RCP’s or union labor policies.

In other cases, a company such as El Paso Natural Gas, the largest pipeline operator in the United States, have contractor policies that require at least 50% of selected bidders from a bid list be union contractors.

Pension funds and companies have adopted such policies because they believe responsible contractors are more likely to have training, better safety records, and a stable workforce. The attributes of a responsible contractor will more likely guarantee that the contract will result in quality work and work completed within budget and on time.

Investment groups recognize these factors as well and believe that there is a market for these products and that such products can deliver a “double-bottom line” – that is, comparable risk adjusted returns and good jobs and community development.

Attached are examples of several different RCP’s or Union Labor Policies. Please note that they vary a great deal. Some policies call for the use of union labor; others simply raise the bar by requiring fair wages, family benefits, training programs and/or good track records. The policies also tend to differ regarding the investigation and enforcement of the policies.

For more information regarding these issues, please contact the Department of Corporate Affairs at 202-942-2249.

Examples of Responsible Contractor Policies:

• Public Pension Funds:

  • Calpers
  • Calsters
  • New York Commonwealth
  • Ohio Public Employees
  • Illinois State Board of Investment

• Investment Products:
  • ULLICO
  • MEPT
  • American Realty

• Corporate Policies:
  • El Paso
  • Cigna

• Infrastructure: This document is a copy of the Responsible Contractor Policy that has been adopted by the Macquarie, Allinda, Carlyle and Table Rock Capital Infrastructure funds.