§ 70.5 - Procedure for obtaining HUD waiver of prevailing wage rates for volunteers.

§ 70.5 Procedure for obtaining HUD waiver of prevailing wage rates for volunteers.

(a) This section applies to those HUD programs under which HUD is statutorily authorized to waive prevailing wage requirements for volunteers, as referenced in § 70.1(b).

(b) Local or State agencies or private parties whose employees are otherwise subject to prevailing wage rates and which wish to use volunteers shall request a waiver of prevailing wage requirements from HUD for the volunteers. A request for waiver shall indicate that the proposed volunteers are volunteering their services for the purposes of lowering the costs of construction. The request shall include information sufficient for HUD to make a determination, as required by statute, that any amounts saved through the use of volunteers are fully credited to the corporation, cooperative, or public body or agency undertaking the construction and a determination that any payments to volunteers meet the criteria in section 70.3(b). Information regarding the crediting of amounts saved is required in order to insure that the statutorily prescribed purpose of lowering the costs of construction is fulfilled by passing savings from the use of volunteers on to the sponsor or other body or agency undertaking the construction, rather than permitting the retention of any savings as a windfall by a contractor or subcontractor. A written waiver shall be provided to the requestor by the Department within ten days of receipt by the Department of sufficient information to meet the requirements for a waiver.

(c) For a project covered by prevailing wage rate requirements in which all the work is to be done by volunteers and there are no paid construction employees, the local or State funding agency (or, if none, the entity that employs the volunteers) shall record in the pertinent project file the name and address of the agency sponsoring the project, the name, location, and HUD project number (if any) of the project, the number of volunteers, and type of work and hours of work they performed. The entity responsible for recording this information shall provide a copy of the information to HUD.

(d) For a project covered by prevailing wage rate requirements in which there is to be a mix of paid workers and volunteers, the local or State funding agency (or, if none, the entity responsible for generating certified payrolls) shall provide HUD the information in (c) of this section, along with the names of the proposed volunteers.