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COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2018
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES  
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

12. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

Legal Proceedings

From time to time, the Company is subject to legal proceedings or claims that arise in the ordinary course of its business. The Company accrues for costs related to loss contingencies when such costs are probable and reasonably estimable. As of December 31, 2018, the Company is not aware of any material pending legal proceedings or threatened litigation that would have a material adverse effect on the Company’s results of operations, financial condition or cash flows, although no assurance can be given with respect to the ultimate outcome of pending actions. Refer to Note 20, “Legal Proceedings” of these consolidated financial statements for further discussion of legal proceedings.

Environmental Compliance and Remediation Liabilities

The Company’s operations and products are subject to a variety of environmental laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which the Company operates and sells products governing, among other things, air emissions, wastewater discharges, the use, handling and disposal of hazardous materials, soil and groundwater contamination, employee health and safety, and product content, performance and packaging. Also, certain environmental laws can impose the entire cost or a portion of the cost of investigating and cleaning up a contaminated site, regardless of fault, upon any one or more of a number of parties, including the current or previous owners or operators of the site. These environmental laws also impose liability on any person who arranges for the disposal or treatment of hazardous substances at a contaminated site. Third parties may also make claims against owners or operators of sites and users of disposal sites for personal injuries and property damage associated with releases of hazardous substances from those sites.

In connection with the Company’s restructuring initiatives, during the third quarter of 2012, the Company identified a liability associated with the planned sale of one of the Company’s facilities located in Cicero, Illinois (the “Cicero Avenue Facility”). The liability is associated with environmental remediation costs that were identified while preparing the site for sale. During 2013, the Company applied for and was accepted into the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (“IEPA”) voluntary site remediation program. In the first quarter of 2014, the Company completed a comprehensive review of remedial options for the Cicero Avenue Facility and selected a preferred remediation technology. In the fourth quarter of 2017, the Company completed the remediation of the Cicero Avenue Facility which was subsequently sold for $583, net of expenses, in the third quarter of 2018. 

Collateral

In select instances, the Company has pledged specific inventory and machinery and equipment assets to serve as collateral on related payable or financing obligations.

Warranty Liability

The Company provides warranty terms that generally range from one to five years for various products and services relating to workmanship and materials supplied by the Company. In certain contracts, the Company has recourse provisions for items that would enable the Company to pursue recovery from third parties for amounts paid to customers under warranty provisions.

Liquidated Damages

In certain customer contracts, the Company has agreed to pay liquidated damages in the event of qualifying delivery or production delays. These damages are typically limited to a specific percentage of the value of the product in question and dependent on actual losses sustained by the customer. When the damages are determined to be probable and estimable, the damages are recorded as a reduction to revenue. During 2018 and 2017, the Company incurred no liquidated damages and there was no reserve for liquidated damages as of December 31, 2018.

Workers’ Compensation Reserves

As of December 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively, the Company had $374 and $812 accrued for self‑insured workers’ compensation liabilities. At the beginning of the third quarter of 2013, the Company began to self‑insure for its workers’ compensation liabilities, including reserves for self‑retained losses. The Company entered into a guaranteed workers’ compensation cost program at the beginning of the third quarter of 2016, but still maintains a liability for the trailing claims for the self-insured policy periods. Although the ultimate outcome of these matters may exceed the amounts recorded and additional losses may be incurred, the Company does not believe that any additional potential exposure for such liabilities will have a material adverse effect on the Company’s consolidated financial position or results of operations.

Other

As of December 31, 2018, approximately 23% of the Company’s employees were covered by two collective bargaining agreements with local unions at the Company’s Cicero, Illinois and Neville Island, Pennsylvania locations. The current five-year collective bargaining agreement with the Neville Island union is expected to remain in effect through October 2022. During the third quarter of 2018, a new collective bargaining agreement was negotiated and ratified with the Cicero Union. The new four-year collective bargaining agreement with the Cicero union is expected to remain in effect through February 2022.

See Note 18, “New Markets Tax Credit Transaction” of these consolidated financial statements for a discussion of a strategic financing transaction (the “NMTC Transaction”) which originally related to the Company’s drivetrain service center in in Abilene, Texas (the “Abilene Gearbox Facility”), and was amended in August 2015 to also include the activities of the Company’s heavy industries business conducted in the same building in Abilene, Texas (the “Abilene Heavy Industries Facility”). The Abilene Heavy Industries Facility focuses on Heavy Fabrications for industries including those related to compressed natural gas distribution. Pursuant to the NMTC Transaction, the gross loan and investment in the Abilene Heavy Industries Facility and the Abilene Gearbox Facility of $10,000 is expected to generate $3,900 in tax credits over a period of seven years, which the NMTC Transaction makes available to Capital One, National Association (“Capital One”). The Abilene Heavy Industries Facility and/or the Abilene Gearbox Facility operated and remained in compliance with the terms and conditions of the NMTC Transaction during the seven year compliance period ending in the third quarter of 2018, allowing Capital One to capture up to $3,900 in tax credits. At the end of the seven year compliance period, Capital One exercised its right to put the investment back to the Company in exchange for $130. The loan was extinguished and the Company recorded a gain of $2,249 in other income, net of transaction expenses.