HB 339

Employee protections; prevailing wage, wage and hour, health and safety, and mining safety provisions. Provides that for the requirement that prevailing wages be paid for work performed on public works, 'public works' includes all federal construction projects administered or controlled by a state agency or locality if the prevailing wage rate as determined by the Commissioner of Labor and Industry (the Commissioner) is equal to or greater than the prevailing wage determination by the U.S. Secretary of Labor for the same locality for the same type of construction used to classify the federal construction project. The bill requires the Commissioner to determine the prevailing wage based on either (i) applicable prevailing wage rate determinations made by the U.S. Secretary of Labor under the provisions of the Davis-Bacon Act or (ii) the rate that prevails for work of a similar character on public works in the locality in which the work is performed under collective bargaining agreements or understandings between employers or employer associations and bona fide labor organizations relating to each craft or type of worker or mechanic needed to execute the contract or perform such work, and collective bargaining agreements or understandings successor thereto, provided that said employers or members of said employer associations employ at least 30 percent of the laborers, workers, or mechanics in the same trade or occupation in the locality where the work is being performed, whichever is greater. Additionally, the bill requires that, if a federal wage or hour law, federal occupational health and safety law, or federal mine safety law is repealed, revoked, amended, or reinterpreted in any manner that results in the federal protections becoming less stringent, the Commissioner, the Safety and Health Codes Board, or the Department of Energy, respectively, shall promulgate regulations that incorporate the federal law being repealed, revoked, amended, or newly interpreted.