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City council passes ordinances to protect workers’ rights

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

by Malea Martin / Mountain View Voice
Uploaded: Wed, Sep 14, 2022

Employees in Mountain View will soon have increased labor protections thanks to a pair of ordinances passed by the city council Tuesday night – though some members of the public raised concerns that the ordinances don’t go far enough to protect workers on the city’s own projects.

The Wage Theft and Responsible Construction ordinances first came to the council in October 2021 as a study session item. Nearly a year later, the council had its first reading of the ordinances at its Aug. 30 meeting before passing the ordinances with a few adjustments at its Sept. 13 meeting.

The purpose of the ordinances is “to help ensure accountability and compliance with existing state wage and hour laws, enhance the protection of workers’ rights, and support the city’s existing minimum wage ordinance,” said Christina Gilmore, assistant to the city manager, at the Aug. 30 meeting.

In the case of the Wage Theft Ordinance, staff proposed that the business license process be used to connect with Mountain View employers and seek compliance with state wage and hour laws, according to the council report from the Aug. 30 meeting.

“As part of this process, all businesses would be required to submit an affidavit attesting that the business does not have any unsatisfied labor law judgments or orders,” the report said, and the city would investigate potentially false attestations on a complaint basis.

Similarly, for the Responsible Construction Ordinance, staff in 2021 proposed using the city’s building permit process to achieve wage protections for workers employed in construction projects. Owners, contractors and subcontractors on projects at and above 15,000 square feet would be required to submit a Pay Transparency Acknowledgement form at the beginning of the permit application process, and then a second Pay Attestation form before reaching the end of the project.

After the 2021 study session, staff made a few adjustments before bringing the ordinances back to council for the first reading on Aug. 30. For instance, businesses with no employees would be exempt from the wage theft ordinance requirements. Staff also incorporated stronger consequences for non-compliance with the Responsible Construction ordinance, such as the certificate of occupancy being withheld for failure to submit the form or in the case of a sustained complaint of wage theft.

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Contra Costa DA’s Office and U.S. Department of Labor announce partnership to combat wage theft

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

The Press.net | June 24, 2022

Contra Costa District Attorney Diana Becton and U.S. Department of Labor Assistant District Director for San Jose Alberto Raymond have agreed to combat wage theft and protect workers’ rights.

Wage theft affects victims in various ways – and at all income levels. Some workers are denied overtime or are paid less than the minimum wage per hour. Some employers also refuse to pay bonuses, vacation pay, or reimbursement of business expenses.

According to investigations by the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division in 2021, U.S. workers were denied over $230 million in back pay.

The DA’s Office will be devoting resources to prosecute criminal wage theft cases to curtail labor trafficking, unfair business practices, payroll tax evasion, and wage and hour violations. To do this, District Attorney Becton will create a Workplace Justice Unit that’s committed to a fair and equitable workplace.

Becton noted, “While the DA’s Office and the Department of Labor have had an informal relationship on human labor trafficking and wage theft cases since 2014, this (deal) marks the start of a formal five-year partnership to continue our efforts to seek justice for victims of crime.”

Wage theft is a felony punishable by up to three years in jail. Employers caught stealing from their employees may be personally liable for unpaid wages and face criminal asset forfeiture actions, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Labor Division fiscal year 2021 data.

In addition to investigating and prosecuting cases, both agencies will conduct community outreach programs to inform the public about reporting wage theft — as well as provide resources for employers to help them follow labor and payroll tax laws.

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We Need to Talk About Wage Theft

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Ericka Cruz Guevarra, Farida Jhabvala Romero ,Alan Montecillo, Maria Esquinca
June 8, 2022 – KQED

In California, tens of thousands of workers aren’t getting paid what they’re owed by their employers. Many of these workers are low-wage earning immigrants in industries like construction, home care, and food service.

The state actually has a system in place where people can file claims of wage theft. But the system currently has a huge backlog, leaving people waiting years before they can try and and recover their money. In some cases, workers claim their employers stole tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars from them.

The result? Many low-wage Californians miss out on rent, food, and can even lose their homes.

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DA announces effort to fight wage theft

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

BY CITY NEWS SERVICE LOS ANGELES
PUBLISHED 3:43 PM PT APR. 14, 2022

LOS ANGELES (CNS) — Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón Thursday announced an agreement with the California Labor Commissioner to bolster the investigation and prosecution of wage theft.

The pact calls on the state’s Department of Industrial Relations to identify and refer investigative leads, complaints and referrals of possible violations to the District Attorney’s Office for civil and criminal prosecution.

“When hard-working people are not paid the money they have rightfully earned, they lose their ability to feed, clothe and house their families, creating a cascading effect that causes our entire community to suffer along with them,” the district attorney said in a written statement.

A 2020 study found that up to 21% of the construction workforce — some 2.4 million workers — are illegally paid off the books or misclassified as independent contractors, according to the District Attorney’s Office, which noted that losses to federal and state treasuries amount to some $8.4 billion.

Frank Hawk, president of the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, lauded Gascón for helping to “fight against wage theft and fraud in the construction industry here in Los Angeles, the majority of which is happening in the multi-family residential housing sector.”

Meanwhile, the district attorney also announced a separate pilot pretrial diversion program with Southwest Carpenters for young adults facing criminal charges.

The program, dubbed “Ready,” will provide 20 people between the ages of 18 and 25 with a pathway to a career as a union carpenter with full benefits and a pension, and will partner with Homeboy Industries, Second Call and Volunteers of America to create a pipeline to the union’s pre- apprenticeship programs, including a four-week program in Whittier that is geared toward the under-served people of Los Angeles, including the formerly incarcerated, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

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San Diego County adopts prevailing wage policy for projects on county land

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

BY DEBORAH SULLIVAN BRENNAN
FEB. 17, 2022 5 AM PT

San Diego — Construction projects on county land must use skilled, trained workers and pay them prevailing wages, the Board of Supervisors decided in a split vote last week. Supervisors Jim Desmond and Joel Anderson, the two Republicans on the board, opposed the measure, while Democratic Supervisors Nathan Fletcher, Terra Lawson-Remer and Nora Vargas voted in favor.

Prevailing wages are set by the state to establish pay and benefits for public works projects based on compensation rates for similar work in the same area. The federal government and the state of California set prevailing wages on public projects under their jurisdiction, as do some local governments including the city of San Diego.

The county’s action, called the Working Families Ordinance, requires contractors for construction projects on county land to use skilled, trained workers and pay prevailing wages on projects over $1 million. It also requires employers on county-leased land to provide paid sick leave and to ensure worker protections against retaliation and discrimination.

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California Labor Commissioner Collects Over $2.6 Million in Wages for 100 Workers on a Public Works Project

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

CA Dept. of Industrial Relations | NEWS RELEASE
Release Number: 2021-122
Date: December 16, 2021

Long Beach— The Labor Commissioner’s Office collected $2,631,876 in wages and $37,672 in apprenticeship training funds resulting from a prevailing wage assessment against Torrance-based general contractor TOBO Construction, Inc. The wages collected will compensate 100 workers for unpaid prevailing wages and overtime while working on a construction project on El Camino Community College’s campus in Torrance.

“Contractors on publicly-funded construction projects must pay workers a prevailing wage,” said Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower. “TOBO Construction, Inc. cheated these workers out of millions of dollars in pay and benefits.”

El Camino Community College District hired TOBO Construction, Inc., a general building, engineering and electrical contractor, as prime contractor to build a $35 million Student Services Center building. Workers hired included bricklayers, carpenters, drywall installers, laborers, ironworkers, steel framers and other trades workers.

The Labor Commissioner’s Office opened its investigation in May 2018 after receiving a report of public works violations from the Carpenters Contractors Cooperation Committee and the Painters and Allied Trades Compliance Administrative Trust. The investigation included interviews with over 40 workers and an audit of payroll records, which were turned over only after the investigators served subpoenas on TOBO Construction, Inc.

The investigation determined that TOBO Construction had maintained false payroll records over a 31-month period to cover up the wage theft. The contractor hired brokers to provide staffing for the construction project, and those brokers paid the workers in cash or personal checks $100 to $160 per day. Investigators reviewed thousands of falsified checks that were not issued to workers, many of them signed by the same person.

Additionally, investigators found that TOBO Construction failed to comply with apprenticeship requirements for a public works project. TOBO Construction failed to provide contract award information to all applicable apprenticeship committees, and failed to hire apprentices in the required ratio of one hour of apprentice work for every five hours performed by journeypersons in the applicable craft or trade.

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Gov. Newsom Signs Assemblywoman Gonzalez’ Wage Theft Criminalization Bill

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By City News Service
September 28, 2021

The new law specifies that the intentional theft of wages or tips by employers is punishable as grand theft

A bill that could jail employers for intentionally committing wage theft was signed into law Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Assembly Bill 1003, written by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, specifies that the intentional theft of wages or tips by employers is punishable as grand theft.

“I’ve never understood why we don’t hold employers who steal from their workers responsible for their crimes, the same way we treat any other serious theft,” Gonzalez said. “I’m hopeful this bill will finally change that and make bad actors think twice before treating wage theft like a simple business decision.

“This law sends a clear message: if you intentionally steal workers’ hard-earned wages, you can actually go to prison,” she said.

In California, minimum wage violations cost workers close to $2 billion annually. AB 1003 makes the intentional theft of wages, tips, benefits or compensation — over $950 for one employee and over $2,350 for two or more employees in any 12 consecutive month period — punishable as grand theft. Prosecutors would have the authority to decide whether to charge an employer with a misdemeanor or felony.

According to a report released in May by the Economic Policy Institute, laws that made the crime of wage theft a felony increased the likelihood that district attorneys would pursue more cases and provided prosecutors a more effective means to go after egregious employer crimes.

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Governor Newsom Signs Executive Order Regarding Workers’ Compensation Presumption For Certain COVID-19 Related Claims (CA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

May 15, 2020

Under the California Workers’ Compensation Act (“the Act”), employers must carry workers’ compensation insurance for employee injuries or illnesses which “arise out of and in the course of” employment. The Act, first passed in 1911 and amended over the years by the Legislature, provides a comprehensive system for administering claims, including the provision of disability benefits and the payment for associated medical expenses for work-related injuries.

Now comes the COVID-19 pandemic and a panoply of emergency orders by governors across the country. On May 6, 2020, Governor Newsom signed Executive Order #N-62-20 which creates a presumption that any COVID-19-related illness of an employee shall be presumed to arise out of and in the course of the employment for purposes of awarding workers’ compensation benefits if certain conditions are met.
Those conditions include the following:

  1. The employee tested positive for or was diagnosed with COVID19 within 14 days after a day that the employee performed labor or services at the employee’s place of employment at the employer’s direction;
  2. The day referenced in subparagraph (a) on which the employee performed labor or services at the employee’s place of employment at the employer’s direction was on or after March 19, 2020;
  3. The employee’s place of employment referenced in subparagraphs (a) and (b) was not the employee’s home or residence; and
  4. Where subparagraph (a) is satisfied through a diagnosis of COVID-19, the diagnosis was done by a physician who holds a physician and surgeon license issued by the California Medical Board, and that diagnosis is confirmed by further testing within 30 days of the date of the diagnosis.

Thus, the Governor has taken the extraordinary step of presuming a workplace injury without specific evidence of job-causation. While the scope and legality of the new Executive Order may be subject to challenge, it is incumbent upon the California employer to review and enforce workplace safety, in all areas, and to specifically protect against the risk of employee exposure to a communicable disease, thereby avoiding added liability and costs associated with job illness or injury claims.

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Shortchanging Workers in Concord Won’t Pencil Out (CA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Why prevailing wage standards are good for workers – and even good for developers.

By Matthew Miller
MARCH 04, 2020

The development and re-use project at the former Concord Naval Weapons Station has now been nearly 15 years in the making. With plans for 13,000 housing units, a college, and more than 8 million square feet of commercial space, the Naval Weapons Station could be a regional economic engine for decades.

In winning the Concord City Council’s selection as master developer for the project, the Florida-based developer Lennar made a number of commitments to the community, and has entered into discussions with the city and relevant labor stakeholders regarding the best ways to honor them. Among them, an agreement that would cover things like the hiring of local construction workers and paying the local market prevailing wage.

Recently however, reporting indicates that Lennar may not sign onto an agreement that does right by the skilled workers by paying them prevailing wages, because it claims that doing so does not pencil out. Before any hasty decisions are made, it is important to dispel such myths.

Prevailing wage is the local market wage floor for specific types of skilled construction work. It includes not just wages, but investments in apprenticeship training that ensure communities can meet their long-term construction labor force needs. Both the federal government and 25 states, including California, have laws that prescribe these standards for schools, roads, and other types of public construction to ensure taxpayer-funded projects are done right the first time.

Over the years, armies of economists have studied whether prevailing-wage standards make construction projects more expensive. The overwhelming consensus of peer-reviewed studies is that they do not. The reason why is because construction labor constitutes less than a quarter of total project expenditures on average. In other words, it is simply not what drives costs. And research also shows that projects paying prevailing wage consistently offset higher wages with higher levels of productivity and less spending on materials, equipment, and other purchased services.

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UC Davis housing contractor gets 10 years in prison for fraud (CA)

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Nov. 17, 2019

DAVIS, Calif. – A 56-year-old Colorado man who fraudulently became a UC Davis housing contractor has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for insurance fraud, wage theft, perjury and grand theft, officials said. …

Thompson then secretly ran the business using the fraudulent license, officials said.

His business was able to obtain a contract with UC Davis to build student housing. During construction, he stole more than $633,000 of his employees’ wages, defrauded the California State Compensation Insurance Fund and committed perjury to conceal his fraud. In all, he caused a total loss of more than $2 million, according to the district attorney’s office.

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