WSA Member Update 7.1.23

July 1, 2023  Dear WSA Members,  Through the more than three decades I’ve been covering the power sweeping industry, I’ve heard both positives and negatives from setting up independent contractors to handle a portion of contractor business accounts. Although there are some strong motivators to set up independent contractors, there are truly many pitfalls in the concept.  So, to get knowledge about this topic out to the entire industry I worked with Phil Duncan, well known principal with BindDesk Insurance Agency, WSA endorsed agency. Between us we researched all of the pluses and minuses, including potential financial risks, and put them into a 45-minute Zoomcast presentation for you. Although this Zoomcast will also become a topic in the upcoming WorldSweeper e-newsletter, it will be promoted as an example of the type of wide-ranging info that is usually available only to WSA members. Anybody working in hot weather? When news about the extraordinary heat wave hitting much of the country (56 million was the number mentioned on the news a couple days ago…) is on the news in the Pacific NW, I would think any helpful ideas on how to deal with the heat might be helpful. The OSHA-NIOSH Heat Safety Tool is a useful resource for planning outdoor work activities based on how hot it feels throughout the day. It has a real-time heat index and hourly forecasts specific to your location. It also provides occupational safety and health recommendations from OSHA and NIOSH. Here’s the link.  ‘Tis the Season… for you and your workers to potentially get injured setting off fireworks. Here are 10 Tips for Firework Safety from the Science and Technology section of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security: I suggest you print out the page and distribute to your employees to help keep them safe during the July 4th holiday.   As you will recall, in our last WSA Update one of our members asked if the WSA office had “heard any rumblings about Walmart changing payment terms to vendors.” Here’s what we found out from members: “When City FM had Walmarts, they were 30 days. Walmart went back to Service Channel and they went to 60 days in my area. I know a guy in Alabama that was with City FM and he went to Service Channel and he is on 30 days. But he has been getting a paper check about 2 weeks later. When I called them, they just said I was 60 days. Now I am with Divisions and they are on 55 days.”  Another WSA contractor called in about getting audited by a Walmart-associated firm. The upshot was the affiliate company was auditing in an attempt to claw back over $50,000 the contractor had been authorized and paid for work performed in the last several years. We are looking into this situation and hope to cover it in a future WSA Update.  CASE Facilities Management Solutions A WSA member wrote saying “I wish you would ask CASE why they are not paying. They owe me now, little over $4000 since 1st week of March. Several emails and fussing, I am now seeking an attorney.”  So, we added CASE into our complete listing of third party vendors. In the new listing for CASE noted what the contractor said; also, I found it interesting that CASE appears not to mention power sweeping on the company’s website anywhere. I called the CASE office but the person I spoke with would not allow me to speak to a manager without knowing the specifics of the contractor who had not gotten paid. The contractor has indicated he’d welcome being on a three-way call with CASE about their nonpayment issue. We’ll see what CASE management has to say about doing so. As always, if you have questions or comments about this WSA Member Update, or anything else to do with the World Sweeping Association or power sweeping in general, please let me know.  Good Sweeping,  Ranger Kidwell-Ross, Executive Director World Sweeping Association