Occupational safety and health: lead-related construction registration program.

Existing law requires the proposal, review, and adoption of standards and requirements to protect the health and safety of employees who engage in lead-related construction work. This bill would establish a registration program that, with certain exceptions, would require employers and contractors who perform lead-related construction work, as defined, to register with the Division of Occupational Safety and Health before commencing work. The bill would require payment of an application fee for registration in an amount determined by the division as prescribed and would require annual renewal of the registration with the payment of a renewal fee established by the division. Under the bill, those fees would be deposited into the Lead Contractor Registration Fund, which the bill would create, with the moneys in the fund to be used, upon appropriation, for the purpose of investigating, registering, and renewing registrations for lead-related construction work. The bill would require an application to include specified information and a declaration that any information provided by the applicant is genuine, true, and correct to the best of the applicant's knowledge, and would impose a civil penalty for false statements, enforceable by a public prosecutor. The bill would require the division to deny an application if it makes a specific determination and would authorize an employer or contractor to appeal that denial to the Director of Industrial Relations. The bill would establish administrative penalties to be imposed by the division for violations of these provisions.