SB 1162 Amends California Public Contract Code to Strengthen Compliance Reports Related to Apprentices

Existing law governs when a public entity must get an enforceable commitment that a contractor will use a skilled and trained workforce to complete a contract or project.  The current definition of a “skilled and trained workforce” means that at least 60% of the skilled journeypersons employed to perform work on the contract—by every contractor and each of its subcontractors at every tier—are graduates of an apprenticeship program for the applicable occupation, except for specified occupations.  The contractor, or other applicable entity, must currently provide the public entity a report on a monthly basis demonstrating its compliance with these requirements.

SB 1162 will now require the monthly compliance report to include the full name of, and identify the apprenticeship program name, location, and graduation date of, all workers relied upon to satisfy the apprenticeship graduation percentage requirement.

On or before July 1, 2025, the state will need to create and maintain a public online database to verify that an applicable worker graduated from a California apprenticeship program. The database must be searchable by using the first name, last name, and the graduation date of the worker.

In addition to creating an online database, SB 1162 strengthens enforcement.  Once the law goes into effect, if a monthly report is not in compliance, the contracting agency must withhold all further payments to the non-compliant contractor. In order to receive withheld payments, non-compliant contractors must take steps to mitigate their violation of the law by either developing a plan to achieve substantial compliance with the law, or by replacing the non-compliant subcontractor.

For more information, please contact your legal counsel.