Hawaii Green Building Law

If a green roof is being installed should the workers be compensated as roofers or landscapers? This is one of the questions raised by non-union roofers in Minnesota who filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board.

The roofers have been working on installing a green roof on the Target Center, in Minneapolis. The roofers allege that they have been receiving inadequate pay—specifically that they are receiving landscaper pay–$20 less per hour than the prevailing wage for roofers. They also allege poor working conditions and that their employer, a Minnesota roofing contractor, retaliated after the workers complained and tried to unionize. The contractor defends the lower wages saying a lot of green roof work is landscaping, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

This is a labor dispute. Nevertheless, the roofers’ complaints demonstrate that legal issues go beyond the situation of a developer alleging that a building did not attain a specific certification level, as in Shaw Development v. Southern Builders, or a building’s green features failed to perform as expected. What’s next?

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