H. B. 3229
(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Kiss, and Delegate Kuhn)
[Introduced March 30, 2001; referred to the
Committee on Industry and Labor, Economic Development and
Small Business 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 within a one hundred mile radius of the borders
of West Virginia and every county in West Virginia.
(b) Between the first day of July, two thousand one, and the
thirtieth day of June, two thousand three, the West Virginia
division of highways shall select at least two and not more than
three construction projects, the school building authority shall
select at least one and not more than two construction projects and
the public service commission shall select at least one public
service district water or sewerage 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, the executive
director of the school building authority and the chairperson of
the public service commission 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
seventy-five 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 seventy-five percent labor market residents as
employees on a public improvement project must inform the nearest
job service office of the West Virginia bureau of employment
programs of his or her employment needs. If within one week
following the placing of a job order, the bureau is unable to refer
any qualified job applicants to the employer, or less than the
number requested, the bureau 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, highways and
public service district construction 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, the executive director of the school
building authority and the chairperson of the public service
commission 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, the executive director of
the school building authority and the chairperson of the public
service commission, 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.
This article is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.