State of California Gray Davis, Governor Department of Industrial Relations Division of Labor Standards Enforcement*

Contract awarding bodies are left with the decision whether to monitor proper wage payment, or to allow the burden of monitoring to be on the contractors and labor organizations. Response: State law places the burden for monitoring a project subject to the State's prevailing wage laws on the awarding body.

Enforcement of the Prevailing Wage Law is carried out by the State Department of Industrial Relations. Response: Various Divisions within the State Department of Industrial Relations are responsible for carrying out the provisions of the State's prevailing wage laws. For example the Division of Labor Statistics and Research (DLSR) conducts surveys to assist in a determination of the proper prevailing wage by category of worker and geographic area. The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement is responsible for investigating claims that workers on projects, subject to the Prevailing Wage laws, are paid in accordance with those provisions. The Director of the Department of Industrial Relations is responsible for setting the prevailing wage by county and category of worker; determining whether a project is covered by the prevailing wage laws; and holding hearings to determine violations of the labor standards provisions of the prevailing wage laws, brought by DLSE.

The statute allows only 180 days from the "notice" of completion" of a project to conclude any wage investigation. Response: The statute of limitations, for DLSE to a wage and penalty assessment for violation of labor standards laws on a project subject to the prevailing wage laws is 180 days from the filing of a valid notice of completion with the recorder's office in each county where work on that project was performed, or 180 days after acceptance of the projects whichever occurs last. This time deadline is extended by another 180 days if the awarding body is still holding funds payable to a contractor allegedly in violation. Then the wage and penalty assessment can still be issued up to the total of the funds withheld. (See California Labor Code §1741) Note: Even if the Grand Jury's finding was completely correct, the limitations period for enforcement is not as short as it seems. In many cases, claims for violations of labor standards laws occurring during the course of the project are filed and Hon. Allan Hardcastle August 20, 2002 . can be addressed prior to completion of the project.

Department of Industrial Relations records show that between January 1, 2000 and September 15, 2002 Eighty-nine investigations have been reported pertaining to agencies in Sonoma County as follows: _50% are "Under Investigation" _26% are "Statute Expired" _14% are "Wages or Penalties Paid" _10% are "No Violations" Response: It is difficult for DLSE to respond to these statistics, as there is no explanation contained in the report indicating their source. If more information could be provided, such as the details for the 26% where the "statute expired" a more meaningful response might be possible. For example, how much time was left on the statute when the complaint was filed? Was the complaint filed before the expiration of the statute of limitations? What, if any, investigation had DLSE undertaken during the statute period? What was the type of violation, and scope with respect to numbers of workers involved and severity? With respect to the 50% "under investigation" DLSE believes that this would represent a very high percentage of response given the Labor Commissioner's resources and the high numbers of claims received. As these cases are finalized, the numbers in the "wages and penalties paid" and "no violations found" categories will increase. Response to Recommendations