Supporters Hail Victory for Bipartisanship, Economy and California Taxpayers
San Diego – Last Friday, after hearing arguments from both sides in the lawsuit aimed at blocking California’s new Prevailing Wage Law (SB7), San Diego Superior Court Judge Joel R. Wohlfeil affirmed his August 28th ruling upholding SB7. SB7 is a bipartisan law enacted in 2013 that encourages more of California’s Charter Cities to pay Prevailing Wage on locally-funded construction projects.
The California Legislature imposed a new registration requirement for contractors and subcontractors involved in public works projects. Senate Bill 854, passed in June, created a registration program, which went into effect on July 1, to fund the Department of Industrial Relations’ monitoring and enforcement of prevailing wage laws.
The registration period is open now, and contractors and subcontractors wishing to work on a public works project must be registered by March 1, 2015. For public agencies/awarding bodies, the new law requires that all public works projects with bids submitted after March 1, 2015, or awarded on or after April 1, 2015, use only registered contractors and subcontractors. The bill also requires public agencies to include notice of the registration requirement in their bid invitations and bid documents.
Public agencies must additionally file notice of their public works projects with DIR using DIR form PWC-100 (contract award notice) for all public works projects. This requirement previously applied to about 90 percent of all projects.
Contractor and subcontractor registration is completed through an online application and requires a non-refundable $300 fee to be paid by the contractors and subcontractors. Contractors must pay an annual renewal fee by July 1 of each year. The registration form is located on the DIR’s website.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento-based Frank Carson Landscape & Maintenance Inc., doing business as Carson Landscape Industries, The Grove and TurfPro, has agreed to pay $185,270 in back wages and liquidated damages to 164 of their employees because of Fair Labor Standards Act overtime and record-keeping requirement violations. The agreement followed an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.
Investigators from the division’s Sacramento District Office found that the company failed to pay time and one- half for hours worked beyond 40 hours in a workweek, as required by law. The company failed to maintain accurate records of hours employees worked before and after their scheduled shifts, and paid only for scheduled hours rather than actual hours worked.
“This investigation puts money back into the hands of workers denied their rightfully earned wages. This practice hurts not only workers and their families, but it gives companies that violate the law an unfair competitive advantage,” said Richard Newton, the division’s district director in Sacramento.
A Project Labor Agreement (PLA) covering up to $500 million of construction at Riverside City, Moreno Valley and Norco colleges has surpassed its local hiring goals. The projects are partially funded through California’s Measure C bonds with the state and federal government providing matching funding.
The use of a PLA was heavily contested, but building trades union advocates and their mission of ensuring local hire ultimately prevailed:
Since the agreement was adopted in 2010 on a 3-2 vote, 65 percent of workers have come from Riverside and San Bernardino counties and 54 percent of participating businesses have been local, according to a presentation prepared by Padilla & Associates, which administers the agreement for $1.6 million.
The five-year agreement requires contractors to pay union-level wages and benefits, sets a local hiring goal of 50 percent and requires apprenticeship programs. Workers from Riverside County get first priority followed by workers from San Bernardino County.
Supporters of a hike in local minimum wages left nothing to chance yesterday as a city council decision on a proposal by Todd Gloria neared. Over 400 hundred people showed up at city hall for a 6pm hearing, filling the council chambers and two overflow rooms. Many wore pink signs indicating their support.
Email and social media reminders abounded during the day, including a mid-day Raise Up San Diego-led “Twitterstorm.” More than 100 people testified before the council. Highlights included former basketball star Bill Walton standing up in favor of the measure and United Foodservice and Commercial Workers’ Mickey Kasparian giving an impassioned speech.
In the end, the City Council did the right thing, voting 6-3 to enact by ordinance a minimum wage hike, with raises in three stages effective January, 2015. This means the measure will not be placed before the voters in November.
Additional increases will come in successive years, topping out at $11.50 in January, 2017. Starting in January 2019, further hikes will be tied to the consumer price index.
The measure as passed awards full time employees up to five days a year in earned paid sick leave; part-time workers will earn prorated sick leave based on the number of hours they work.
At a time when the City of El Centro is experiencing the second highest unemployment rate of any city in the nation, it is astounding that leaders there are wasting tax dollars and time by joining a lawsuit against a new state law designed to create more middle class jobs for construction workers across California.
The new law, Senate Bill 7 does not require cities to pay prevailing wages, but it does provide incentives to cities that choose to pay prevailing wages on projects that are locally funded. SB7 gives access to state funding and financing if they will comply with prevailing wage agreements already in place for all state and federally funded projects on locally funded projects.
State and federal governments already require the payment of prevailing wage, because for over 80 years, prevailing wage laws have ensured that taxpayer dollars go to fund projects that are completed by the best trained workers available for the best value possible; more often than not, these projects are completed on time and on budget. For years, out of state lobby groups have tried to convince local officials in California that they can save money by paying workers less. In practice, these claims tend to fall apart.
Over 4000 such “Lowe’s professionals” in California are members of the plaintiff class in an action alleging that Lowe’s misclassified its installers as independent contractors, rather than employees, thus depriving them of a variety of employee benefits, from workers compensation insurance coverage to 401(k) plan participation.
Without admitting liability, Lowe’s recently settled the case after mediation for a sum that could be as much as $6.5 million, depending on how many of the installers actually file claims and what damages they can prove (and assuming the proposed settlement is approved by the court). Plaintiffs’ attorneys fees may be up to 25% of that amount.
More than 120 truck drivers who haul consumer goods from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to retail warehouses launched an indefinite strike on Monday, according to MSNBC, escalating a tumultuous multi-year union organizing effort among the drivers. The consumer brands whose supplies could be affected by the strikes include Skechers shoes, Ralph Lauren, Walmart, and Home Depot, according to a press release from strike organizers.
The core complaint underlying the union drive is that companies like Total Transportation Services, Inc. (TTSI), Green Fleet Systems, and Pacific 9 Transportation deem their drivers “independent contractors” in order to avoid paying overtime and prevent their workers from enjoying various other labor law protections. The drivers say they are misclassified and should be treated as full employees, and have begun to flood the California Labor Commission with wage theft complaints in order to fight the misclassification and seek the pay that the “independent contractor” label has cost them over the years.
As Mayor and Vice Mayor of Vacaville, we have unique knowledge of the impact of public construction projects both on taxpayers, and our local economy. Taxpayers expect our public works to be done right, and cost effectively. And our community benefits when these projects employ local workers at decent wages.
That’s why last year we passed a resolution in support of SB7 – a new state law that encourages more cities to pay prevailing wage on public construction projects.
And it’s why today, we are disappointed to see some California cities filing suit to block this law.
Research clearly demonstrates that prevailing wage projects don’t cost any more than those built by low wage, less skilled workers. In fact, prevailing wage projects often save taxpayer dollars as a result of the projects having fewer change orders, fewer delays, and fewer accidents.
The reason is simple: Prevailing wage projects are built by the best trained workers available. Prevailing wage workers tend to be higher skilled because these projects help fund training programs that not only ensure that we get top quality completed project, but that we have a well trained workforce in the future to support our growing infrastructure needs.
Pacer Cartage, a California logistics company, is being ordered to pay more than $2.2 million in back pay to short-haul truck drivers it illegally misclassified as independent contractors, Think Progress reports. The California Labor Commissioner’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement says that the company knew or should have known that the drivers were employees and not contractors and Pacer is required to pay restitution, attorney’s fees and interest.
Misclassification is a tactic corporations engage in to try to exempt themselves from having to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act, minimum wage laws and other laws protecting workers. If employees are classified as private contractors instead of employees, they are excluded from coverage under many labor laws and can be paid less. The truckers, for instance, were not paid by Pacer for time spent doing things like waiting at a port to pick up a load or for reimbursement of job-related expenses.