WHAT'S NEW?
California Skilled and Trained Workforce
California Skilled and Trained Workforce still creates havoc for many employers. While there are some amendments in the works by the California legislature, these basic requirements still apply:
Two Parts to STW:
Part 1: All workers employed on the project must be an apprentice, a journeyman who is a graduate of an apprenticeship program (DAS approved program within CA or DOL approved program out of State) OR a journeyman with equivalent experience
Impact: no new hires or those with limited experience in construction on the project.
Part 2: Of the journeyman employed on the project, 60% MUST be graduates of an apprenticeship program (DAS approved program within CA or DOL approved program out of State).
30% for the following trades: Acoustical installer, bricklayer, carpenter, cement mason, drywall installer or lather, marble mason, finisher, or setter, modular furniture or systems installer, operating engineer, pile driver, plasterer, roofer or waterproofer, stone mason, surveyor, teamster, terrazzo worker or finisher, and tile layer, setter, or finisher. 60% for all other trades.
Exceptions to STW:
- If a subcontractor is performing less than ½ of 1% of the total contract price
- Workers performed a total of less than 10 hours of work per month
- Apprenticeship Program created after 2014 (some limitations)
Challenges: Both union and open shop contracts struggle to meet these numbers. Most apprenticeship programs are operated by a union. So open shop contractors have less opportunity to enroll their own workers in these programs. When companies become union signatory, their respective workforce is typically grandfathered in as journeymen so these journeymen do not have graduation cards from the apprenticeship program.
The Awarding Agency has the obligation to report non-compliant contractors to the DIR. The DIR can then take up to 18 months after the completion of the project to complete its investigation and issue penalties. While penalties currently max out a $5,000 per month, the DIR is consistently reducing those penalties (but not waiving them) if the contractor can show it has made a genuine effort to recruit graduates of apprenticeship programs and has been unsuccessful.
Contractor Jailed for Stealing Wages from Workers in Pennsylvania
Scott C. Good plead guilty in 2021 to “wage theft” after a Statewide Grand Jury recommended charges against Good for stealing employees’ wages for several years. A Clearfield County Judge ordered a prison term of four to 24 months. Good subsequently appealed the sentence and conviction. That appeal was recently sustained and Good will now begin his prison term. This is the first time in Pennsylvania that an individual was jailed for wage theft.
Every year CCMI comes across a handful of contractors who take unlawful deductions from worker’s checks or have the worker sign their paycheck back to the employer and receive cash for an amount less than the value of the paycheck. If this is on a federally funded project, this is a felony under the Copeland Antikickback Act. Various states have other laws addressing wage theft.
