Public works: apprenticeship program.

Existing law provides that when a contractor or subcontractor performing a public works project is found by the Labor Commissioner to be in violation of the requirements relating to public works contracts, except with regard to the employment of apprentices, with intent to defraud, or within a 3-year period of having committed 2 or more separate willful violations of these provisions, the contractor or subcontractor or a firm, corporation, partnership, or association in which the contractor or subcontractor has any interest is ineligible to bid on, be awarded, or perform work as a subcontractor on a public works contract for specified periods of time. This bill would make these provisions applicable to violations of provisions related to the employment of apprentices. Existing law, among other things, imposes a civil penalty on contractors or subcontractors who are determined to have knowingly violated specified provisions regulating the employment of apprentices on public works projects, provides that a contractor or subcontractor who is determined to have knowingly committed a serious violation of the apprentice employment provisions may additionally be denied the right to bid on or be awarded or perform work as a subcontractor on any public works contract for a specified period of time, provides for a review of the civil penalty or debarment by the Labor Commissioner, and provides for a process to collect the civil penalty. This bill would revise and recast these provisions by, among other things, making the civil penalty applicable to the contractor and any subcontractor responsible for the violation, requiring the Labor Commissioner or his or her designee to issue a civil wage and penalty assessment in accordance with a specified provision, and providing for notice by the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement to the contractor within 15 days of receipt of a complaint that their subcontractor knowingly violated the apprentice employment provisions.