Are plumbing apprentice graduates safer than their non-apprentice peers? Workers’ compensation claims among journey level plumbers by apprenticeship participation

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Journal of Safety Research
Volume 83, December 2022, Pages 349-356

Abstract
Introduction: Apprenticeships combine mentored on-the-job training with related instruction to develop a workforce with the skills sought by employers. Workplace safety is an important component of apprenticeship training. Whether that training results in fewer work injuries, however, is largely unknown. Method: We linked Washington’s registered apprenticeship data, plumber certification (licensing) data, employment data, and workers’ compensation claims to compare claim rates among journey level plumbers (JLP) by apprenticeship participation. We used negative binomial regression models to estimate rates of total claims, wage replacement/disability claims, acute injuries, and musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), adjusted for worker characteristics. Results: Among JLP certified between 2000 and 2018, rates among JLP with no apprenticeship training were 46% higher for total workers’ compensation claims (adjusted Rate Ratio (aRR) = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.26–1.69) and 60% higher for wage replacement/disability claims (aRR = 1.60, 95% CI: 1.22–2.11), compared to rates among JLP who completed a plumbing apprenticeship. Apprentice graduates experienced a greater decline in the rate of total claims between the 5 years preceding JLP certification and the years after certification (55.3% vs. 41.4% among JLP with no apprenticeship training). Greater rate reductions among JLP apprentice graduates were also observed for acute injuries and MSD, although the decline in MSD was not significantly different from the decline among JLP with no apprenticeship training. Conclusions: Successful completion of a plumbing apprenticeship program is associated with fewer work injuries throughout the career of a JLP. Apprenticeships appear to play a key role in reducing work injuries among JLP, especially acute injuries. Practical Applications: Apprenticeships are an effective model for reducing workplace injuries. The mechanisms by which apprenticeship training improves workplace safety should be identified to better inform injury prevention efforts among apprentices as well as among workers outside of a formal apprenticeship arrangement.

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Spokane Promotes A More Diverse Construction Workforce (WA)

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The City is launching a program to encourage women, minorities, and veterans to join the construction industry.

by: Press Release Desk, News Partner
Aug 15, 2019 / 4:58 PM ET

From the City of Spokane: The City of Spokane is launching a small grant program designed to provide training to allow more women, minorities, and veterans be prepared for construction industry jobs. Grants of up to $2,500 are available for organizations that want to establish or expand pre-apprenticeship programs in construction trades for one or more of these groups.

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The City has been working for some time to increase the number of available construction workers in our community. The Spokane region has seen an 18 percent increase in construction jobs over the last year! Ensuring that the community has a well-trained construction workforce is critical as our community continues to grow. And helping women, minorities and veterans qualify for good-paying construction jobs is another goal.

In 2016, the City revised its Public Works Apprentice Program statue, requiring all contractors on public works construction projects to use apprentices for at least 15 percent of the labor hours on the job. The requirement applies to construction projects with an estimated value of $600,000 or more.

The program has helped to grow the number of trained construction workers in our community. This grant program is next step in this effort. Fines paid by contractors who were unable to meet the apprenticeship requirement are funding these grants.

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Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee Increases Wage Protections on Public Works Jobs (WA)

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May 7 , 2019

Public works projects in Washington state will have increased protections for construction workers with the enactment of a bill that allows them additional time to file complaints over failure to pay the proper wages.

Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed into law May 7 ESSB 5035, which increases the window from 30 to 60 days after a public works job is accepted to file a complaint over failure to pay the prevailing wage.

(PDF Copy of Bill)

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ATTORNEY GENERAL’S LEGISLATION STRENGTHENING WAGE THEFT LAWS AND INCREASING PENALTIES PASSES LEGISLATURE WITH BIPARTISAN SUPPORT (WA)

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By Washington State Office of the Attorney General
Apr 19th, 2019

OLYMPIA – The Legislature passed Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s agency request legislation strengthening Washington’s wage theft laws in the prevailing wage arena. Prevailing wage is most common in government contracts. Prevailing wage laws prevent a “race to the bottom” as contractors seek to lower worker pay in order to underbid each other.

The bill, SB 5035, increases the maximum penalty for prevailing wage violations from one thousand dollars or 20 percent of the violation, whichever is greater, to five thousand dollars or 50 percent of the violation, whichever is greater. These penalties have not increased since 1985.

Ferguson’s legislation also closes a major loophole in Washington’s prevailing wage laws that allows repeat and willful violators to avoid a penalty or sanction if they respond to a wage complaint by returning the stolen pay to the worker before the state can take additional legal action. This loophole derives from the state’s limited authority to file enforcement actions when there are “unpaid wages” – a term that was undefined before now.

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“This bill ensures that employers who cheat their workers out of hard-earned pay will face consequences, the same as you or I would face if we stole something,” said Ferguson. “Allowing the state to pursue penalties against employers that intentionally rip off their workers protects hardworking Washingtonians and their families.”

…

The Washington Building Trades, Faith Action Network and Working Washington also supported SB 5035.

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L&I fines 99 Tunnel subcontractor for failing to pay prevailing wage (WA)

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Glacier Northwest ordered to provide $370,000 in back pay

By Brandon Macz
2/28/19 12:12 pm

Washington’s Department of Labor & Industries has hit Glacier Northwest with more than $74,000 in civil penalties for reportedly failing to pay workers a prevailing wage for their work disposing of dirt during construction of Seattle’s new State Route 99 Tunnel.

Seattle Tunnel Partners tapped Glacier Northwest as a subcontractor for the project for an estimated $28 million, according to an L&I news release, and tasked the company with disposing of dirt and other materials excavated by the Bertha tunnel-boring machine.

“This was the only project that the Glacier Northwest disposal site was accepting dirt from, so L&I was able to identify the specific workers and hours worked,” the news release states. “Because the tunnel is a public works project, those workers are entitled to prevailing wages, which they did not get.”

The L&I investigation was prompted by a June 2016 complaint, and the labor department reports 46 Glacier Northwest employees were collectively deprived of $370,666 in prevailing wages for spreading around 2.2 million tons of dirt at the former Mats Mats Quarry near Port Ludlow.

Glacier Northwest and STP are appealing the decision by L&I to fine the subcontractor $74,133 and order those workers receive back wages.

The 46 operating engineers were owed a journey level rate of $48.49 per hour, time-and-a-half for overtime and hours worked on Saturdays, and double-time for hours worked on Sundays, according to L&I’s Notice of Violation issued last December.

The range for owed compensation is from nearly $90 to $30,572. Ten engineers are owed at least $20,000 in back pay, according to the Notice of Violation.

(See Article)

Wage violations, false payrolls mean Bonney Lake firm banned from bidding on public construction projects (WA)

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Nov. 27, 2018

Tumwater – A Bonney Lake construction firm and its owner are permanently banned from bidding or working on public projects in Washington as the result of a recent settlement with the state Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) over wage violations and false reporting of payroll records.

I&C Northwest and owner Jim Lingnaw also agreed to pay more than $200,000 in back wages and penalties for the violations. The company did pipe insulation work on 14 schools and a warehouse across Western Washington in 2015 and 2016. The firm will repay $153,000 in wages to nine employees, each of whom worked on several of the projects.

L&I cited the company last year for the unpaid wages and for false reporting of payroll records. Under the settlement, reached recently, Lingnaw agreed to pay $1,000 a month in penalties for the next four years and is barred from being involved with his son’s companies should they work on public projects.

“The citations are based on I&C’s repeated wage violations despite L&I’s efforts to educate the company on following the prevailing wage law,” said Jim Christensen, Prevailing Wage Program manager for L&I. “We’ve been investigating the company since 2014.”

The schools I&C worked on include one high school, four middle schools, and nine elementary schools. The schools are in Bellevue, Clover Park, Mercer Island, North Thurston, Tacoma, Tahoma, Tumwater, Seattle, and Snoqualmie Valley school districts. The company also performed work on a warehouse for the Central Kitsap School District.

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Seattle worker-rights groups uniting to create ‘one-stop shop’ for workplace wrongs (WA)

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By: Benjamin Romano
August 3, 2018

Working Washington and the Fair Work Center, two organizations that have been as effective as any in recent years at expanding and defending the rights of workers in Seattle and beyond, are joining forces under a new executive director.

Rachel Lauter, most recently the deputy chief of staff to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, assumed the role of leading both organizations in late May, a first step in a merger designed to create what she describes as “a one-stop shop for worker organizing, advocacy, outreach and education and legal services.”

That’s necessary, she said, because aggrieved workers or those looking to improve working conditions may not always know what kind of help they need or where to begin.

Working Washington got its start in 2011 organizing low-wage workers to push for the nation’s first $15-an-hour minimum wage, passed by SeaTac voters in 2013, and then by the Seattle City Council in 2014. The labor-backed group has run successful campaigns – often marked by attention-grabbing stunts and protests, online and off – for predictable shift scheduling, expanded sick leave, equal treatment and, most recently, expanded protections for domestic workers.

The Fair Work Center (FWC), meanwhile, formed in 2016 with a mission of educating workers about their rights in Seattle and beyond, offering legal aid and connections to groups advocating for specific communities such as immigrants and youth. It has been awarded more than $2.5 million from the city of Seattle’s Office of Labor Standards under a grant program designed to “develop awareness and understanding of worker rights, and facilitate resolution of labor standards violations.” According to its 2017 annual report, the legal clinic helped low-wage workers recover more than $350,000 resulting from wage theft, discrimination and harassment, retaliation and other violations.

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CONTRACTOR SENTENCED FOR CRIMINAL WAGE THEFT, FALSE REPORTING OF WORKERS’ COMP PAYMENTS (WA)

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By Office of the Attorney General (Washington State)
July 27th, 2018

Alejandro Sandoval and his company must pay back $25,000 in workers’ wages

SEATTLE – A Maple Valley contractor and his company must pay back more than $25,000 in unpaid wages in addition to unreported workers’ compensation insurance after a joint investigation by the Attorney General’s Office and the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I).

Alejandro Sandoval and his company, Sandoval Construction, were sentenced today in King County Superior Court after pleading guilty to false reporting and first-degree theft. As part of the plea deal, Sandoval Construction is ordered to reimburse the workers for their unpaid wages and Sandoval will be responsible for unpaid workers’ compensation insurance payments to the state.

Under separate civil proceedings, he owes L&I at least $197,000 in unpaid premiums, interest and penalties.

“Wage theft is a crime, and as long as I’m Attorney General, those that steal from their workers will be prosecuted,” Attorney General Bob Ferguson said. “Thanks to the coordinated efforts of my office and L&I, these workers will be paid for their work.”

“People work hard and deserve to be paid fully and on time,” said L&I Director Joel Sacks. “Teaming up with the Attorney General gives us the extra hammer of criminal prosecution to collect wages for workers and reduce workers’ comp costs for employers.”

L&I enforces workplace rights and administers the state workers’ compensation insurance system that helps injured workers heal and return to work. When employers cheat and fail to pay their fair share, those who follow the rules pay higher premiums.

The Attorney General’s Office began its criminal investigation in 2016 after L&I received complaints from a dozen workers for Sandoval and his company, alleging Sandoval Construction had not paid them $25,620 in wages that they were owed.

In addition, an L&I audit revealed that Sandoval had underreported his workers’ compensation payments to the state agency, despite deducting them from employee paychecks. The audit, which covered a sampling of four different quarters, found he owed more than twice what he reported to L&I in that timeframe.

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Bonney Lake contractor fined for underpaying workers on public school projects (WA)

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by KOMO Staff
Tuesday, October 10th 2017

OLYMPIA, Wash. – A Bonney Lake contractor was fined $218,000 and ordered to pay out $210,000 in back wages after an investigation found it shorted employees for work on 10 public school construction projects, the state Department of Labor & Industries reports.

The company, I&C Northwest of Bonney Lake, and owner Jim Lingnaw, were cited for the unpaid regular wages and overtime, and for false reporting. The company owes also faces a prohibition from bidding on any public works projects.

The back pay was owed to nine who worked for I&C Northwest on the public school projects.

Jim Christensen, prevailing wage program manager for L&I, said the citations are based on the contractor’s continued violations of state law after the agency educated the firm on requirements for public contracts. The agency warned Lingnaw in January 2016 about receiving fines and disbarment after L&I uncovered the same violations on five other projects.

Investigations involving the company go back to at least 2014, said L&I spokesman Matthew Erlich.

“This case represents examples of repeated violations of the law,” said Christensen, who has more than a decade of experience handling prevailing wage issues. “Our investigation showed I&C falsified pay documents and shorted the workers on each project. This goes beyond a simple, honest mistake.”

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Washington Company Cited for Shorting Construction Workers on Project (WA)

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“Integrity vastly underpaid its employees for the work they did,” said Elizabeth Smith, assistant director for L&I’s Fraud Prevention and Labor Standards division. “It’s important that agencies and non-profits understand that using public money on a project means it’s covered under prevailing wage.”

Aug 28, 2017
Occupational Health & Safety

A Washington State Department of Labor & Industries found that six construction workers employed by Integrity Construction LLC were shorted more than $155,000 in wages for work on a Belfair senior center and are owed about $25,000 each for wood framing at the site, the Belfair Hospitality, Unity, and Belonging (HUB) Senior Center. Their employer, Integrity Construction LLC, was on the project from May to August 2015. L&I recently notified the company of the violation.

“Integrity vastly underpaid its employees for the work they did,” said Elizabeth Smith, assistant director for L&I’s Fraud Prevention and Labor Standards division. “By making sure contractors pay their workers fairly, we are creating a level playing field for firms in the construction industry.”

The investigation found the Tacoma company owes $156,692.48 in wages and more than $30,000 in fines and penalties. Integrity did not appeal the violation and is barred from bidding on future public works projects until that money is paid. The Belfair project received $1.86 million from the state’s capital budget, which meant Integrity was required to follow the state’s prevailing wage law. L&I enforces the law.

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