Contractors' workers' compensation insurance coverage.

(1) Existing law, the Contractors' State License Law, provides for the licensing and regulation of contractors by the Contractors' State License Board within the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law requires every licensed contractor, or applicant for licensure, to have on file at all times with the board a current and valid Certificate of Workers' Compensation Insurance or Certification of Self-Insurance, or a statement certifying that he or she has no employees and is not required to obtain or maintain workers' compensation insurance. Existing law, until January 1, 2013, requires a contractor with a C-39 roofing classification to obtain and maintain workers' compensation insurance even if he or she has no employees. This bill would extend the operation of these provisions indefinitely. The bill would require the current and valid Certificate of Workers' Compensation Insurance or Certification of Self-Insurance to be in the applicant's or licensee's business name. Under existing law, for any license that, on January 1, 2011, is active and includes a C-39 classification but for which a valid Certificate of Workers' Compensation or Certification of Self-Insurance has not been received by the registrar of contractors, the registrar is required, in lieu of suspending the license, to remove the C-39 classification from the license. This bill would change this date to January 1, 2013, and would extend the operation of these provisions indefinitely. Existing law requires the suspension of any license that, after January 1, 2011, is active and has had the C-39 classification removed pursuant to the above-described provisions, if the licensee is found by the registrar to have employees and to lack a valid Certificate of Workers' Compensation or Certification of Self-Insurance. This bill would change this date to January 1, 2013, and would extend the operation of these provisions indefinitely. (2) Existing law requires an insurer who issues a workers' compensation insurance policy to a roofing contractor holding a C-39 license from the Contractor's State License Board to perform an annual payroll audit for the contractor. The Insurance Commissioner is further required to direct the rating organization designated as his or her statistical agent to compile pertinent statistical data on those holding C-39 licenses, and, on an annual basis, the rating organization is required to report its data to the commissioner. Under existing law, the statistical data in the rating organization's report includes the total annual payroll and loss data reported on those holding C-39 licenses, as specified. Existing law provides that these provisions are inoperative and repealed on January 1, 2013. This bill would extend the operation of these provisions indefinitely. The bill would require that the statistical data compiled by the rating organization pursuant to these provisions include data regarding the number of employers, total payroll, total losses, and the losses per $100 of payroll, broken down by reported annual payroll ranges. The bill would require that the audit performed by the insurer include an in-person visit to the place of business of the roofing contractor to verify whether the number of employees reported by the contractor is accurate.