BILL NUMBER: AB 972 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 13, 2014
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 29, 2013
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 21, 2013
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Ian Calderon
FEBRUARY 22, 2013
An act to amend Section 1776 of the Labor Code, relating
to employment. An act to add Section 768.3 to the
Public Utilities Code, relating to public utilities.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 972, as amended, Ian Calderon. Employment:
electricians: certification. Electrical corporations:
underground electrical facilities: worker safety.
Existing law requires that, except as specified, not less than the
general prevailing rate of per diem wages, determined by the
Director of Industrial Relations, be paid to workers employed on
public works projects. Under existing law, contractors and
subcontractors are required to keep payroll records that include,
among other things, the name, address, and work classification of
each journeyman, apprentice, worker, or other employee employed in
connection with the public works project. A contractor or
subcontractor, or agent or representative thereof, doing public work
who neglects to comply with those provisions is guilty of a
misdemeanor.
This bill would require payroll records for projects that use an
electrician to include the electrician's state certification number.
By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would impose a
state-mandated local program.
The Public Utilities Act authorizes the Public Utilities
Commission to require public utilities, including electrical
corporations, to construct, maintain, and operates their facilities
and equipment to promote and safeguard the health and safety of its
employees. A violation of the Public Utilities Act, or any decision,
rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission would be a
crime.
This bill would require the commission, on or before January 1,
2016, to adopt a rule regulating work performed in underground
electrical facilities by, or on behalf of, an electrical corporation
that is consistent with certain worker safety protections. Because a
violation of the rule would be a crime, this bill would impose a
state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 768.3 is added to the
Public Utilities Code , to read:
768.3. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(1) Electrical equipment, including transformers and switches,
housed in underground facilities, such as manholes and vaults,
present an extremely hazardous working environment if work is
attempted while the equipment is energized.
(2) There have been numerous fatalities and serious injuries when
work has been performed in underground electrical facilities while
the equipment was energized.
(3) California has thousands of underground electrical facilities.
The commission has provided electrical corporations with limited
authority to avoid installing additional underground electrical
facilities.
(4) Work is performed in underground electrical facilities by both
employees of the electrical corporation and by employees of outside
contractors. Some of these employees do not have the technical
training to know how to deenergize the equipment, to perform a hot
scan or gas test, to determine if the equipment has been deenergized
and make safe a confined space working environment, or to determine
if equipment adjacent to the workspace presents a hazard. These
employees can be at severe risk if electrical equipment is not
properly deenergized and set to avoid automatically becoming
reenergized.
(5) Only a qualified electrical worker has the training and
qualifications to ensure that an underground electrical facility has
been fully deenergized and that it is safe to proceed with the work
in the facility.
(b) On or before January 1, 2016, the commission shall adopt a
rule regulating work performed in underground electrical facilities
by, or on behalf of, an electrical corporation that does all of the
following:
(1) Prohibits work on energized underground electrical equipment.
(2) Requires a qualified electrical worker to determine that
underground electrical equipment has been deenergized and is in a
mode that would make the equipment safe to be worked on.
(3) Requires a qualified electrical worker to ensure that all
other adjacent equipment and circuitry in the underground electrical
facility is placed in a mode suspending the reclosing relays.
(4) Requires a qualified electrical worker to be present when any
work is being performed in an underground electrical facility
containing underground electrical equipment.
(c) For the purposes of this section, the following terms mean the
following:
(1) "Qualified electrical worker" has the same meaning as set
forth in Section 2700 of Title 8 of the California Code of
Regulations.
(2) "Underground electrical equipment" means equipment normally
energized in excess of 600 volts and all or part of the equipment is
in an underground electrical facility.
(3) "Underground electrical facility" means a vault, manhole, or
other subsurface confined structure.
SEC. 2. No reimbursement is required by this act
pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local
agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a
new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or
changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of
Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a
crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the
California Constitution.
SECTION 1. Section 1776 of the Labor Code is
amended to read:
1776. (a) Each contractor and subcontractor shall keep accurate
payroll records, showing the name, address, social security number,
work classification, straight time and overtime hours worked each day
and week, and the actual per diem wages paid to each journeyman,
apprentice, worker, or other employee employed by him or her in
connection with the public work. In addition, projects that require
the use of an electrician shall also provide the electrician's state
certification number on the payroll records below his or her name.
Each payroll record shall contain or be verified by a written
declaration that it is made under penalty of perjury, stating both of
the following:
(1) The information contained in the payroll record is true and
correct.
(2) The employer has complied with the requirements of Sections
1771, 1811, and 1815 for any work performed by his or her employees
on the public works project.
(b) The payroll records enumerated under subdivision (a) shall be
certified and shall be available for inspection at all reasonable
hours at the principal office of the contractor on the following
basis:
(1) A certified copy of an employee's payroll record shall be made
available for inspection or furnished to the employee or his or her
authorized representative on request.
(2) A certified copy of all payroll records enumerated in
subdivision (a) shall be made available for inspection or furnished
upon request to a representative of the body awarding the contract
and the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement of the Department of
Industrial Relations.
(3) A certified copy of all payroll records enumerated in
subdivision (a) shall be made available upon request by the public
for inspection or for copies thereof. However, a request by the
public shall be made through either the body awarding the contract or
the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. If the requested
payroll records have not been provided pursuant to paragraph (2), the
requesting party shall, prior to being provided the records,
reimburse the costs of preparation by the contractor, subcontractors,
and the entity through which the request was made. The public may
not be given access to the records at the principal office of the
contractor.
(c) The certified payroll records shall be on forms provided by
the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement or shall contain the same
information as the forms provided by the division. The payroll
records may consist of printouts of payroll data that are maintained
as computer records, if the printouts contain the same information as
the forms provided by the division and the printouts are verified in
the manner specified in subdivision (a).
(d) A contractor or subcontractor shall file a certified copy of
the records enumerated in subdivision (a) with the entity that
requested the records within 10 days after receipt of a written
request.
(e) Except as provided in subdivision (f), any copy of records
made available for inspection as copies and furnished upon request to
the public or any public agency by the awarding body or the Division
of Labor Standards Enforcement shall be marked or obliterated to
prevent disclosure of an individual's name, address, and social
security number. The name and address of the contractor awarded the
contract or the subcontractor performing the contract shall not be
marked or obliterated. Any copy of records made available for
inspection by, or furnished to, a joint labor-management committee
established pursuant to the federal Labor Management Cooperation Act
of 1978 (29 U.S.C. Sec. 175a) shall be marked or obliterated only to
prevent disclosure of an individual's name and social security
number. A joint labor management committee may maintain an action in
a court of competent jurisdiction against an employer who fails to
comply with Section 1774. The court may award restitution to an
employee for unpaid wages and may award the joint labor management
committee reasonable attorney's fees and costs incurred in
maintaining the action. An action under this subdivision may not be
based on the employer's misclassification of the craft of a worker on
its certified payroll records. Nothing in this subdivision limits
any other available remedies for a violation of this chapter.
(f) (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, agencies that
are included in the Joint Enforcement Strike Force on the Underground
Economy established pursuant to Section 329 of the Unemployment
Insurance Code and other law enforcement agencies investigating
violations of law shall, upon request, be provided nonredacted copies
of certified payroll records. Any copies of records or certified
payroll made available for inspection and furnished upon request to
the public by an agency included in the Joint Enforcement Strike
Force on the Underground Economy or to a law enforcement agency
investigating a violation of law shall be marked or redacted to
prevent disclosure of an individual's name, address, and social
security number.
(2) An employer shall not be liable for damages in a civil action
for any reasonable act or omission taken in good faith in compliance
with this subdivision.
(g) The contractor shall inform the body awarding the contract of
the location of the records enumerated under subdivision (a),
including the street address, city, and county, and shall, within
five working days, provide a notice of a change of location and
address.
(h) The contractor or subcontractor has 10 days in which to comply
subsequent to receipt of a written notice requesting the records
enumerated in subdivision (a). In the event that the contractor or
subcontractor fails to comply within the 10-day period, he or she
shall, as a penalty to the state or political subdivision on whose
behalf the contract is made or awarded, forfeit one hundred dollars
($100) for each calendar day, or portion thereof, for each worker,
until strict compliance is effectuated. Upon the request of the
Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, these penalties shall be
withheld from progress payments then due. A contractor is not subject
to a penalty assessment pursuant to this section due to the failure
of a subcontractor to comply with this section.
(i) The body awarding the contract shall cause to be inserted in
the contract stipulations to effectuate this section.
(j) The director shall adopt rules consistent with the California
Public Records Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 6250) of
Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code) and the Information
Practices Act of 1977 (Title 1.8 (commencing with Section 1798) of
Part 4 of Division 3 of the Civil Code) governing the release of
these records, including the establishment of reasonable fees to be
charged for reproducing copies of records required by this section.
SEC. 2. No reimbursement is required by this
act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local
agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a
new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or
changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of
Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a
crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the
California Constitution.