Electrician Helper

Work description

Elway Alliance is a construction contractor performing electrical construction at its Sioux Falls, South Dakota worksite, including new-construction electrical installation and electrical repair and service work, for its own active project sites and for other clients. Elway Alliance permanently employs 39 Electrician Helpers at this worksite. They perform exterior and underground electrical work (trenching, service line installation, and exterior conduit installation), interior electrical work (rough-in, trim, and finish), and electrical repair and service work in every month of the year, as project and client demand requires. The Employer's need for 39 additional temporary Electrician Helpers arises from a recurring surge in interior electrical workload at the Sioux Falls worksite each December through April that exceeds what the permanent Electrician Helper crew can absorb without supplementation. Two conditions stop exterior work in those months, and two sources of demand fill them. First, sustained sub-freezing temperatures and snow. Under National Weather Service climate normals for Sioux Falls, the average daily high falls to 29F in December and 26F in January, and December through March each average 7 to 8 inches of snowfall. The Employer does not schedule exterior electrical work (service line connections, exterior conduit, and elevated work) in these conditions: reduced dexterity in cold-weather gloves, ice on equipment, ladders, and work platforms, and reduced footing and visibility during snowfall. Second, statutory spring load restrictions. Under South Dakota Codified Law 32-22-24, maximum axle loadings on state and county highways are reduced from February 15 through April 30 of each year, subject to the highway authority's power to lessen or remove the restrictions as conditions warrant. These are weight limits, not road closures. They restrict the heavy equipment and material-delivery vehicles the Employer's exterior electrical crews rely on, and they run inside the cold-weather period described above. The restriction period covers February 15 through April 30 only; from December 1 through February 14, the exterior stoppage rests on the temperature and snowfall conditions alone. Because exterior and underground electrical work at the Sioux Falls worksite stops each year during these months, the interior electrical scope that is ordinarily spread across the Employer's active projects through the year is concentrated into the same window, December 1 through April 30, as every active project's electrical work shifts to interior rough-in, trim, and finish at once. The same cold conditions also generate electrical work that does not exist during the rest of the year: heating-system electrical work (furnace circuits, heat trace installation and repair, and de-icing systems) as building heating systems are activated and stressed by sustained low temperatures, and repairs to wiring, panels, and fixtures damaged by frozen pipes, at the Employer's own project sites and for other clients. This is new work, not existing work compressed into a shorter window. The combination, concentrated interior scope plus weather-driven repair and service demand, exceeds what the permanent Electrician Helper crew can absorb. To meet this peak, the Employer will supplement its permanent Electrician Helpers with 39 additional workers from December 1 through April 30, a period of five months. These workers are engaged solely for the peak described above and will not become part of the Employer's regular operation. Outside December 1 through April 30, the Employer's permanent Electrician Helpers perform the full range of exterior, interior, and repair and service electrical work without supplementation. The situation and conditions are expected to be recurrent.