Labor Rate Board’s Work is Done; Collision Repairers Await Next Steps
by Alana Quartuccio
The Auto Body Labor Rate Advisory Board (ABLRAB) completed its task of submitting a formal report and recommendations to the Division of Insurance (DOI) and key legislators before the end of 2025, but not without one final debate.
The Board convened for the final time on December 22 to formally approve the written document. With a motion on the floor from Peter Smith (MAPFRE) to approve the report as written, John Kwoka (Neal F. Finnegan Distinguished Professor of Economics, Northeastern University) suggested the Board consider a minor change to reflect that, “although there is no common recommendation” coming from Board members, several recommendations do call for an increase to the labor rate. He believed that it was “somewhat incomplete” suggesting it would be helpful to the DOI to read that there is a common understanding from the majority of the seven written recommendations that came from six of the nine Board members; three Board members sent in one combined report.
Co-chair Stacey Gotham (actuary of the Insurance and Financial Services Division) argued that the Board is made up of 12 members with two co-chairs and Kwoka’s suggestion about “six of nine members” was not a true reflection of the Board. Kwoka corrected her by clarifying he meant six of the nine Board members who submitted recommendations.
Rick Starbard (Rick’s Auto Collision; Revere) agreed with Kwoka’s suggestion to modify the report, stating that six of the seven recommendations submitted “are in favor of some type of increase and to develop a mechanism to get there.”
“I share Kwoka’s view that we may not all agree but there tends to be a heavy indication from what we found [to increase the rate]”, Brian Bernard (Total Care Accident Repair; Raynham) offered.
Christopher S. Stark (Massachusetts Insurance Federation) said he would vote yes on the report as written, but he disagreed with Kwoka’s suggested amendment, stating that had the three insurance members not agreed to one joint statement, the number of reports would be different.
“Overall, we do fall a little bit short of our stated purpose to actually come up with a recommendation,” stated Bernard, who also shared Kwoka’s view. “We might want to sharpen this a little bit and make some sort of a recommendation.”
Starbard motioned to amend the report to include a note that addresses that “the majority of the reports are in favor of action being taken to raise the labor rates.”
Kwoka, Starbard, Bernard were joined by Sean Kane (Safety Research & Strategies, Inc.), (David Brown (Bill Diluca Chevrolet-Cadillac, Inc.; Andover) and Matthew Ciaschini (Full Tilt Auto Body & Collision; West Hatfield) in favor of the amendment, but Stark, Paul Burke (BayCoast Insurance Company), Samantha Tracy (Arbella Insurance Group) and Mark A. Merante (Division of Standards) voted against it. JC Burton (Maven Construction) was not present.
Co-chair Gotham casted an opposing vote creating a tie, which was broken immediately when fellow co-chair Powers also voted no, ultimately killing the idea of adding language to send home the message that there was a 6:3 ratio of members in favor of a labor rate increase.
Voting then commenced for the earlier motion to accept the report as written with all insurance members voting for it, including Co-Chairs Gotham and Michael Powers, while the collision industry representatives, Bernard, Ciaschini and Starbard were once again joined by Kwoka, Kane and Brown in opposition; however, the motion passed.
Starbard questioned, “I’m not an attorney but is it common for co-chairs to vote on a motion [when the situation] is not to break a tie,” to which Powers replied, “They did make and break the tie actually. The vote was seven to six, so one vote made the tie and the second [vote] broke it.” Starbard attempted to comment further but Powers cut him off stating, “That’s the way it works, Mr. Starbard. If you don’t like the rules, that’s the way it works.”
The final vote of the meeting was on a motion to authorize Gotham to review and approve the minutes. Board members Kane, Kwoka, Brown, Starbard, Bernard and Ciaschini all abstained from voting yet Powers announced the motion passed.
All are encouraged to read the final report available at bit.ly/ABLRABReport. Visit bit.ly/ABLRAB to review the recording of the December 22 and others and to read the 13 favorable recommendations made by non-Board members.
Stay tuned to New England Automotive Report as we continue to report on this developing story as more details become available.
Want more? Check out the February 2026 issue of New England Automotive Report!