Amended in Senate August 13, 2014

Amended in Assembly April 29, 2013

Amended in Assembly March 21, 2013

California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 972

Introduced by Assembly Member Ian Calderon

February 22, 2013

begin delete An act to amend Section 1776 of the Labor Code, relating to employment. end delete begin insert An act to add Section 768.3 to the Public Utilities Code, relating to public utilities. end insert

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 972, as amended, Ian Calderon. begin delete Employment: electricians: certification. end delete begin insert Electrical corporations: underground electrical facilities: worker safety. end insert

begin delete

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.

end delete begin delete

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.

end delete begin insert

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.

end insert begin insert

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.

end insert

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:

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begin insert SECTION 1. end insert   

end insert

begin insert Section 768.3 is added to the end insert begin insert Public Utilities
Code end insert begin insert , to read: end insert

begin insert

begin insert 768.3. end insert   

(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.

end insert

begin insert

begin insert SEC. 2. end insert   

end insert begin insert

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.

end insert

begin delete

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.

end delete