H. B. 2030
(By Delegates Collins, Butcher, Davis, Willison and Rowe)
[Introduced January 13, 1999; referred to the
Committee on Government Organization then Finance.]
A BILL to amend article one-b, chapter twenty-one of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
three-a, relating to creating a pilot program to evaluate
the efficacy of requiring employment of residents of the
local labor market in publicly funded construction projects.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article one-b, chapter twenty-one of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section
three-a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1B. REPORTING OF EMPLOYMENT.
§21-1B-3a. Pilot project for employment of residents of local labor market.
(a) As used in this section, "local labor market" means the
labor market area designated by the West Virginia division of
highways for Appalachian regional commission projects and shall
include every county in West Virginia.
(b) Not later than the first day of January, two thousand,
the West Virginia division of highways shall select at least two
construction projects and the school building authority shall
select at least one construction project, to serve as pilot
programs to evaluate the benefit of requiring the employment of
residents of the local labor market on public improvement
projects. The commissioner of highways and the executive
director of the school building authority shall exchange
information related to construction projects under consideration
for inclusion in the pilot program so that, to the extent
possible, the projects selected may be geographically distributed
in different areas of the state. The project selected by the
school building authority shall be a project funded at least
eighty-five percent by state dollars. Upon selection of the
projects to participate in the pilot program, a condition of
awarding the construction contract shall be that the successful
bidder agree to employ at least ninety percent of the employees
engaged or permitted to perform hourly work for wages at the
construction site, excluding salaried supervisory personnel, from the local labor market.
(c) The construction contracts for projects included in the
pilot program shall provide that any employer providing
employment to employees at the construction site not otherwise
able to employ a minimum of ninety percent labor market residents
as employees on a public improvement must inform the nearest
office of the West Virginia division of employment security of
his or her employment needs. If within one week following the
placing of a job order, the division is unable to refer any
qualified job applicants to the employer, or less than the number
requested, the division will award a certificate to the
contractor indicating the unavailability of applicants. The
certificate shall be made a part of the contractor's permanent
project records. Upon receipt of the certificate, the contractor
may employ nonresidents of the labor market to fill any positions
covered by the certificate. Every subcontract related to the
construction contracts for projects included in the pilot program
that will, or reasonably may be, performed as on-site work shall
contain provisions conforming to the requirements of this
section.
(d) The reports or payroll records required by the
provisions of this article for the construction projects selected
for inclusion in the pilot program shall be supplied to the
commissioner of labor. Notwithstanding the provisions of section four of this article, with respect to any construction project
selected as part of the pilot program that is not completed by
the termination date set forth in that section, reports shall be
furnished until the completion of on-site construction for the
projects. The commissioner may request reports or payroll
records pursuant to this article for other school building and
highways projects as may be reasonably necessary to evaluate the
benefit of the pilot project, and the reports or payroll records
shall be provided upon request. The commissioner of highways and
the executive director of the school building authority shall
provide to the commissioner of labor their conclusions and
supporting data as to any effect on construction costs of the
requirement for hiring residents of the local labor market. The
commissioner shall maintain all records as a source of research
material to determine the efficacy of such projects. Not later
than twelve months following the beginning of on-site
construction of the last project included in the pilot program,
the commissioner shall report his or her analysis and supporting
data, evaluating the benefit of the pilot project in providing
additional jobs for West Virginians, including information and
conclusions provided by the commissioner of highways and the
executive director of the school building authority, to the
governor and the Legislature. The report and all information
contained in the report shall be public information, to be supplied to any member of the public upon request.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create a pilot program
to evaluate the efficacy of requiring the hiring of workers from
the local labor market in publicly funded construction projects
in West Virginia.
The entire article is new, therefore strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.