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In its ongoing enforcement efforts of California's public works laws, the State Labor Commissioner's Office issued a press release on March 10, 2010, announcing that two Southern California contractors would be prohibited from bidding on or receiving any public works projects for three years beginning April 19, 2010. California Labor Commissioner Angela Bradstreet explained that the Orders of Debarment were necessary due to the contractors’ “deliberate and willful attempts to skirt the law,” which “will not be tolerated as they take unfair advantage of employees as well as tax payers who fund these public works projects.”
The Labor Commissioner’s Department of Industrial Relations’ (DIR) Division of Labor Standards Enforcement investigation revealed that one contractor asked its employees to tell investigators they were paid $51 per hour when in fact they were only paid $16.25 per hour. The DIR also discovered that the contractors failed to pay proper prevailing wage rates, failed to pay overtime, falsely certified payroll records, and falsely reported work hours of employees.
This latest action demonstrates the State Labor Commissioner’s commitment to enforcing California’s prevailing wage laws. In November 2009, for example, the DIR announced the creation of a new Compliance Monitoring Unit that was created following changes in California’s labor compliance monitoring primarily for projects funded by state-issued public works construction bonds. In addition, earlier last year, the DIR secured nearly $750,000 in wages and penalties as part of a settlement of two substantial prevailing wage enforcement actions and debarred nine contractors from public works projects for similar violations of California prevailing wage laws. These settlements and debarments are intended to send a strong message to contractors and their workers that prevailing wage violations will not be tolerated. “The action that I am taking will help to create a level playing field for legitimate employers operating in this tough economic time,” added Commissioner Bradstreet.
This entry was written by Michele Z. Stevenson.