Amended in Assembly August 22, 2014

Amended in Assembly June 30, 2014

Amended in Senate January 6, 2014

Amended in Senate April 24, 2013

Amended in Senate April 3, 2013

Amended in Senate March 18, 2013

Senate Bill No. 266

Introduced by Senator Lieu

February 13, 2013

An act to amend Section 1741.1 of the Labor Code, relating to public begin delete works, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately. end delete begin insert works. end insert

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 266, as amended, Lieu. Prevailing wages.

Existing law requires the Labor Commissioner to issue a civil wage and penalty assessment to a contractor or subcontractor, or both, if, after an investigation, the commissioner determines there has been a violation of the law regulating public works projects, including the payment of prevailing wages. Existing law tolls the period for service of assessments for the period of time required by the Director of Industrial Relations to determine whether a project is a public work, as specified. Existing law, with respect to the determination of whether a project is a public work, requires a person filing a notice of completion of the project to also provide notice to the Labor Commissioner, as specified, and requires the awarding body or political subdivision accepting a public work to provide to the Labor Commissioner notice of that acceptance, as specified.

This bill instead would require the body awarding the contract for public work to furnish, within 10 days after receipt of a written request from the Labor Commissioner, a copy of the valid notice of completion for the public work or a document evidencing the awarding body’s acceptance of the public work on a particular date, whichever occurs later, in accordance with specified provisions. The bill would require the awarding body to notify the appropriate office of the Labor Commissioner if, at the time of receipt of the Labor Commissioner’s written request, there has been no valid notice of completion filed by the awarding body in the office of the county recorder, and no document evidencing the awarding body’s acceptance of the public work on a particular date. If the awarding body fails to timely furnish the Labor Commissioner with the applicable document, the bill would require that the period for service of assessments be tolled until the Labor Commissioner’s actual receipt of the applicable document. The bill would also include legislative findings and declarations.

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This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

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Vote:  begin delete ²⁄₃ end delete begin insert majority end insert . Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:

(1)  The process for the Director of Industrial Relations to
determine the existence of a public work and to decide
administrative appeals from those determinations has created
unacceptable delays and prejudice to the enforcement of the public
works law, often resulting in the expiration of the statute of
limitations for the identification and collection of wage and penalty
assessments. As a result, wage theft has occurred because workers
are not paid prevailing wage rates and the time for assessment has
expired.

(2) There has been an incentive to some developers, contractors,
and public bodies to engage in expensive and time-consuming
litigation in efforts to extend the time for determining the existence
of a public work. This litigation is often a needless expense to the
state.

(3) Public bodies, developers, contractors, and others are entitled
to a determination of whether a project is a public work as early
as possible so that the costs of the project and the duties of the
parties under the law may be known as early as possible.

(4) Therefore, this act is necessary to ensure the actual receipt
of proper wages, to reduce administrative and litigation costs to
the state and others, and to provide early guidance to all interested
parties.

SEC. 2.  

Section 1741.1 of the Labor Code is amended to read:

1741.1.  

(a) The period for service of assessments shall be
tolled for the period of time required by the Director of Industrial
Relations to determine whether a project is a public work, including
a determination on administrative appeal, if applicable, pursuant
to subdivisions (b) and (c) of Section 1773.5. The period for service
of assessments shall also be tolled for the period of time that a
contractor or subcontractor fails to provide in a timely manner
certified payroll records pursuant to a request from the Labor
Commissioner or a joint labor-management committee under
Section 1776, or an approved labor compliance program under
Section 1771.5 or 1771.7.

(b) (1) The body awarding the contract for public work shall
furnish, within 10 days after receipt of a written request from the
Labor Commissioner, a copy of the valid notice of completion for
the public work filed in the office of the county recorder, or a
document evidencing the awarding body’s acceptance of the public
work on a particular date, whichever occurs later, by first-class
mail addressed to the office of the Labor Commissioner that is
listed on the written request. If, at the time of receipt of the Labor
Commissioner’s written request, a valid notice of completion has
not been filed by the awarding body in the office of the county
recorder and there is no document evidencing the awarding body’s
acceptance of the public work on a particular date, the awarding
body shall so notify the office of the Labor Commissioner that is
listed on the written request. Thereafter, the awarding body shall
furnish copies of the applicable document within 10 days after
filing a valid notice of completion with the county recorder’s office,
or within 10 days of the awarding body’s acceptance of the public
work on a particular date.

(2) If the awarding body fails to timely furnish the Labor
Commissioner with the documents identified in paragraph (1), the
period for service of assessments under Section 1741 shall be tolled
until the Labor Commissioner’s actual receipt of the valid notice
of completion for the public work or a document evidencing the
awarding body’s acceptance of the public work on a particular
date.

(c) The tolling provisions in this section shall also apply to the
period of time for commencing an action brought by a joint
labor-management committee pursuant to Section 1771.2.

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SEC. 3.  

This act is an urgency statute necessary for the
immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within
the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into
immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:

In order to protect workers from wage theft due to prevailing
wages not being paid for labor on a public work, it is necessary
that this act take effect immediately.

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