Amended in Senate August 17, 2016

Amended in Senate June 13, 2016

Amended in Assembly March 30, 2016

Amended in Assembly March 15, 2016

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 1926

Introduced by Assembly Member Cooper

February 12, 2016

An act to amend Section 1777.5 of the Labor Code, relating to public works.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 1926, as amended, Cooper. Public works: prevailing wage: apprentices.

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, an apprentice employed upon public works is required to be paid the prevailing rate of per diem wages for apprentices in the trade to which he or she is registered and to be employed only at the work of the craft or trade to which he or she is registered, as specified.

This bill would require, when a contractor requests the dispatch of an apprentice to perform work on a public works begin delete project, end delete begin insert project and requires compliance with certain preemployment activities as a condition of employment, as specified, end insert that the apprentice be paid the prevailing rate for the time spent on begin delete a end delete begin insert any end insert required begin insert preemployment end insert activity, including travel time to and from the activity, if any, begin insert except end insert as specified.

Because this bill would expand the application of the prevailing wage requirements, the violation of which is a crime, it 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 1777.5 of the Labor Code is amended to
read:

1777.5.  

(a) This chapter does not prevent the employment of
properly registered apprentices upon public works.

(b) (1) Every apprentice employed upon public works shall be
paid the prevailing rate of per diem wages for apprentices in the
trade to which he or she is registered and shall be employed only
at the work of the craft or trade to which he or she is registered.

(2) Unless otherwise provided by a collective bargaining
agreement, when a contractor requests the dispatch of an apprentice
pursuant to this section to perform work on a public works project
and requires the apprentice to fill out an application or undergo
testing, training, an examination, or other preemployment process
as a condition of employment, the apprentice shall be paid for the
time spent on the required begin insert preemployment end insert activity, including travel
begin delete time, end delete begin insert time end insert to and from the required activity, if any, at the prevailing
rate of per diem wages for apprentices in the trade to which he or
she is registered. begin insert Unless otherwise provided by a collective
bargaining agreement, a contractor is not required to compensate
an apprentice for the time spent on preemployment activities if the
apprentice is required to take a preemployment drug or alcohol
test and he or she fails to pass that test. end insert

(c) Only apprentices, as defined in Section 3077, who are in
training under apprenticeship standards that have been approved
by the Chief of the Division of Apprenticeship Standards and who
are parties to written apprentice agreements under Chapter 4
(commencing with Section 3070) of Division 3 are eligible to be
employed at the apprentice wage rate on public works. The
employment and training of each apprentice shall be in accordance
with either of the following:

(1) The apprenticeship standards and apprentice agreements
under which he or she is training.

(2) The rules and regulations of the California Apprenticeship
Council.

(d) If the contractor to whom the contract is awarded by the
state or any political subdivision, in performing any of the work
under the contract, employs workers in any apprenticeable craft
or trade, the contractor shall employ apprentices in at least the
ratio set forth in this section and may apply to any apprenticeship
program in the craft or trade that can provide apprentices to the
site of the public work for a certificate approving the contractor
under the apprenticeship standards for the employment and training
of apprentices in the area or industry affected. However, the
decision of the apprenticeship program to approve or deny a
certificate shall be subject to review by the Administrator of
Apprenticeship. The apprenticeship program or programs, upon
approving the contractor, shall arrange for the dispatch of
apprentices to the contractor. A contractor covered by an
apprenticeship program’s standards shall not be required to submit
any additional application in order to include additional public
works contracts under that program. “Apprenticeable craft or
trade,” as used in this section, means a craft or trade determined
as an apprenticeable occupation in accordance with rules and
regulations prescribed by the California Apprenticeship Council.
As used in this section, “contractor” includes any subcontractor
under a contractor who performs any public works not excluded
by subdivision (o).

(e) Before commencing work on a contract for public works,
every contractor shall submit contract award information to an
applicable apprenticeship program that can supply apprentices to
the site of the public work. The information submitted shall include
an estimate of journeyman hours to be performed under the
contract, the number of apprentices proposed to be employed, and
the approximate dates the apprentices would be employed. A copy
of this information shall also be submitted to the awarding body,
if requested by the awarding body. Within 60 days after concluding
work on the contract, each contractor and subcontractor shall
submit to the awarding body, if requested, and to the apprenticeship
program a verified statement of the journeyman and apprentice
hours performed on the contract. The information under this
subdivision shall be public. The apprenticeship programs shall
retain this information for 12 months.

(f) The apprenticeship program supplying apprentices to the
area of the site of the public work shall ensure equal employment
and affirmative action in apprenticeship for women and minorities.

(g) The ratio of work performed by apprentices to journeymen
employed in a particular craft or trade on the public work may be
no higher than the ratio stipulated in the apprenticeship standards
under which the apprenticeship program operates if the contractor
agrees to be bound by those standards. However, except as
otherwise provided in this section, in no case shall the ratio be less
than one hour of apprentice work for every five hours of
journeyman work.

(h) This ratio of apprentice work to journeyman work shall
apply during any day or portion of a day when any journeyman is
employed at the jobsite and shall be computed on the basis of the
hours worked during the day by journeymen so employed. Any
work performed by a journeyman in excess of eight hours per day
or 40 hours per week shall not be used to calculate the ratio. The
contractor shall employ apprentices for the number of hours
computed as above before the end of the contract or, in the case
of a subcontractor, before the end of the subcontract. However,
the contractor shall endeavor, to the greatest extent possible, to
employ apprentices during the same time period that the
journeymen in the same craft or trade are employed at the jobsite.
When an hourly apprenticeship ratio is not feasible for a particular
craft or trade, the Administrator of Apprenticeship, upon
application of an apprenticeship program, may order a minimum
ratio of not less than one apprentice for each five journeymen in
a craft or trade classification.

(i) A contractor covered by this section who has agreed to be
covered by an apprenticeship program’s standards upon the
issuance of the approval certificate, or who has been previously
approved for an apprenticeship program in the craft or trade, shall
employ the number of apprentices or the ratio of apprentices to
journeymen stipulated in the applicable apprenticeship standards,
but in no event less than the 1-to-5 ratio required by subdivision
(g).

(j) Upon proper showing by a contractor that he or she employs
apprentices in a particular craft or trade in the state on all of his
or her contracts on an annual average of not less than one hour of
apprentice work for every five hours of labor performed by
journeymen, the Administrator of Apprenticeship may grant a
certificate exempting the contractor from the 1-to-5 hourly ratio,
as set forth in this section for that craft or trade.

(k) An apprenticeship program has the discretion to grant to a
participating contractor or contractor association a certificate,
which shall be subject to the approval of the Administrator of
Apprenticeship, exempting the contractor from the 1-to-5 ratio set
forth in this section when it finds that any one of the following
conditions is met:

(1) Unemployment for the previous three-month period in the
area exceeds an average of 15 percent.

(2) The number of apprentices in training in the area exceeds a
ratio of 1 to 5.

(3) There is a showing that the apprenticeable craft or trade is
replacing at least one-thirtieth of its journeymen annually through
apprenticeship training, either on a statewide basis or on a local
basis.

(4) Assignment of an apprentice to any work performed under
a public works contract would create a condition that would
jeopardize his or her life or the life, safety, or property of fellow
employees or the public at large, or the specific task to which the
apprentice is to be assigned is of a nature that training cannot be
provided by a journeyman.

(l) If an exemption is granted pursuant to subdivision (k) to an
organization that represents contractors in a specific trade from
the 1-to-5 ratio on a local or statewide basis, the member
contractors shall not be required to submit individual applications
for approval to local joint apprenticeship committees, if they are
already covered by the local apprenticeship standards.

(m) (1) A contractor to whom a contract is awarded, who, in
performing any of the work under the contract, employs
journeymen or apprentices in any apprenticeable craft or trade
shall contribute to the California Apprenticeship Council the same
amount that the director determines is the prevailing amount of
apprenticeship training contributions in the area of the public works
site. A contractor may take as a credit for payments to the council
any amounts paid by the contractor to an approved apprenticeship
program that can supply apprentices to the site of the public works
project. The contractor may add the amount of the contributions
in computing his or her bid for the contract.

(2) At the conclusion of the 2002-03 fiscal year and each fiscal
year thereafter, the California Apprenticeship Council shall
distribute training contributions received by the council under this
subdivision, less the expenses of the Department of Industrial
Relations for administering this subdivision, by making grants to
approved apprenticeship programs for the purpose of training
apprentices. The funds shall be distributed as follows:

(A) If there is an approved multiemployer apprenticeship
program serving the same craft or trade and geographic area for
which the training contributions were made to the council, a grant
to that program shall be made.

(B) If there are two or more approved multiemployer
apprenticeship programs serving the same craft or trade and county
for which the training contributions were made to the council, the
grant shall be divided among those programs based on the number
of apprentices from that county registered in each program.

(C) All training contributions not distributed under
subparagraphs (A) and (B) shall be used to defray the future
expenses of the Department of Industrial Relations for the
administration and enforcement of apprenticeship standards and
requirements under this code.

(3) All training contributions received pursuant to this
subdivision shall be deposited in the Apprenticeship Training
Contribution Fund, which is hereby created in the State Treasury.
Upon appropriation by the Legislature, all moneys in the
Apprenticeship Training Contribution Fund shall be used for the
purpose of carrying out this subdivision and to pay the expenses
of the Department of Industrial Relations.

(n) The body awarding the contract shall cause to be inserted
in the contract stipulations to effectuate this section. The
stipulations shall fix the responsibility of compliance with this
section for all apprenticeable occupations with the prime contractor.

(o) This section does not apply to contracts of general
contractors or to contracts of specialty contractors not bidding for
work through a general or prime contractor when the contracts of
general contractors or those specialty contractors involve less than
thirty thousand dollars ($30,000).

(p) An awarding body that implements an approved labor
compliance program in accordance with subdivision (b) of Section
1771.5 may, with the approval of the director, assist in the
enforcement of this section under the terms and conditions
prescribed by the director.

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.