It’s essential in any technical role, but even more so for project management and contracting services in engineering to have a firm handle on legalities and contractual law. In short, it saves you from future legal headaches down the track, not only by having a full understanding of the law yourself but by also being able to refer other team members to your knowledge. Having expertise in the subject can also better inform how one’s budget is allocated in the planning stage of any project. Since the role of our industry is to ultimately support those involved in development and construction, we must have more than just the basics of legal consequences when considering how these could impact on those projects. This can include anything from workplace relations, workplace health and safety, environment, and even beyond into external contract law, such as trespass and property laws. One must understand the implications and possible outcomes of breaking any law, as most legal consequences are considered a breach, even if they can be minor in scope.

The reason why we mention this topic, in particular, is that Alabama’s age of consent laws, including “Romeo and Juliet” statutes (which dictate certain conditions in which statutory rape laws may be broken successfully in a court), are already a very sensitive subject in the media, and there is not a lot of positive messaging regarding them. Nowadays, if you’re working on a construction or other related site and employment authorities because of a company system fail to disclose that you have certain employees in the office or on-site for work who may be under certain ages, then being made the scapegoat for those issues because you happen to be nearby when the law was broken is an unfortunate reality. This is especially true for engineers and those who work in project management, who can very easily be roped into legal complications for any such errors of omission.

While some engineers and tech-based project managers have a focus on youth employment in particular, it’s still vital that we are aware of the age of our employees during hiring, and ongoing checks depending upon the structure that your company has internally set up. For example, there is a second consistent clause in many internal company policies that revolve around ensuring our employees take online checks to verify their birthdate so that there is documentation that someone below the appropriate age was never employed by the company and never on-site. Of course, we can’t control the actions of other subcontractors when hired by a third-party company. This is where we have to stay on our toes and ensure that our own third-party contractors are accurately and correctly enforcing their own internal policies, and investigating thoroughly with us before bringing anyone on-site with a questionable age.

We can discuss the various implications of it all, but the bottom line would be that you should verify in very precise terms what your legal obligations are when it comes to your own responsibilities and those of any third parties, and how to protect your own company interests when it comes to working with other companies. Choose to avoid risk, in all construction sites and workplaces!