Department of Industrial Relations: annual survey: Women in Construction Priority Unit.

Existing law establishes the Department of Industrial Relations in the Labor and Workforce Development Agency. Existing law provides that one of the functions of the department is to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of California, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment. Existing law, the Shelley-Maloney Apprentice Labor Standards Act of 1939, authorizes a joint apprenticeship committee, unilateral management or labor apprenticeship committee, or an individual employer to administer an apprenticeship program, as prescribed. Existing law requires the department to conduct an annual survey of the ethnic derivation of the individuals who are parties to apprentice agreements pursuant to that provision. This bill would require the annual survey to additionally include the gender of the individuals who are parties to those apprentice agreements. This bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, require the department to establish a Women in Construction Priority Unit, to be overseen by the Director of Industrial Relations, to coordinate and help ensure collaboration across the department's divisions, and maximize state and federal funding to support women and nonbinary individuals in the construction workforce. The bill would set forth the duties of the unit and would require the director, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to assist with the establishment of the unit by convening, by July 1, 2023, an advisory committee with specified representatives to make recommendations to advance the unit's objectives.