Contractors: wages: liability.

Existing law requires, for all contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2018, a direct contractor, as defined, making or taking a contract in the state for the erection, construction, alteration, or repair of a building, structure, or other work, to assume, and be liable for, specified debt owed to a wage claimant that is incurred by a subcontractor, at any tier, acting under, by, or for the direct contractor for the wage claimant's performance of labor included in the subject of the original contract. Existing law authorizes the Labor Commissioner to bring an action under specified statutes or in a civil action to enforce this liability, and authorizes a third party owed fringe or other benefits, or a joint labor-management cooperation committee, as defined, to bring a civil action to enforce the liability against a direct contractor under these provisions, as specified. Existing law provides that the obligations and remedies under these provisions are in addition to any obligations and remedies otherwise provided by law, except that the provisions are not to be construed to impose liability on a direct contractor for anything other than unpaid wages and fringe or other benefit payments or contributions, including interest owed. This bill would, for specified contracts, extend a direct contractor's liability under these provisions to also include penalties and liquidated damages. The bill would also make the direct contractor liable for the failure to obtain valid workers' compensation coverage. The bill would authorize the Employment Development Department to obtain against a direct contractor, any relief it could obtain against any subcontractor at any tier for the failure of that subcontractor to report and pay all required employer contributions, including the failure to report and pay all required employer contributions, worker contributions, and personal income tax withholding as required by the Unemployment Insurance Code. Existing law requires employers to provide itemized statements to employees at the time wages are paid that show, among other things, gross wages earned and total hours worked. Existing law requires the itemized statements for employees who are compensated on a piece-rate basis to state separately the total hours of compensable rest and recovery periods, the rate of compensation, and the gross wages paid for those periods during the pay period, among other things. Existing law requires those employees to be compensated for rest and recovery periods and other nonproductive time at or above specified minimum hourly rates, separately from any piece-rate compensation. This bill would exempt any work performed pursuant to a contract for construction from these piece-rate provisions.