S-0188.2

SENATE BILL 5418

BySenators Conway, Keiser, Hasegawa, Kuderer, Saldaña, Frame, Trudeau, Hunt, and C. Wilson

AN ACT Relating to expanding the definition of public work; and amending RCW 39.04.010 and 39.12.010.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. RCW 39.04.010 and 2008 c 130 s 16 are each amended to read as follows:

The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.

(1) "Award" means the formal decision by the state or municipality notifying a responsible bidder with the lowest responsive bid of the state's or municipality's acceptance of the bid and intent to enter into a contract with the bidder.

(2) "Contract" means a contract in writing for the execution of public work for a fixed or determinable amount duly awarded after advertisement and competitive bid, or a contract awarded under the small works roster process in RCW 39.04.155.

(3) "Municipality" means every city, county, town, port district, district, or other public agency authorized by law to require the execution of public work, except drainage districts, diking districts, diking and drainage improvement districts, drainage improvement districts, diking improvement districts, consolidated diking and drainage improvement districts, consolidated drainage improvement districts, consolidated diking improvement districts, irrigation districts, or other districts authorized by law for the reclamation or development of waste or undeveloped lands.

(4) "Public work" means all work, construction, alteration, repair, or improvement other than ordinary maintenance, executed at the cost of the state or of any municipality, including those supported in part or in whole by the granting or loaning of public dollars or by tax deferral or reimbursement, or which is by law a lien or charge on any property therein. All public works, including maintenance when performed by contract shall comply with chapter 39.12 RCW. "Public work" does not include work, construction, alteration, repair, or improvement performed under contracts entered into under RCW 36.102.060(4) or under development agreements entered into under RCW 36.102.060(7) or leases entered into under RCW 36.102.060(8).

(5) "Responsible bidder" means a contractor who meets the criteria in RCW 39.04.350.

(6) "State" means the state of Washington and all departments, supervisors, commissioners, and agencies of the state.

Sec. 2. RCW 39.12.010 and 2019 c 242 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) The "prevailing rate of wage" is the rate of hourly wage, usual benefits, and overtime paid in the locality, as hereinafter defined, to the majority of workers, laborers, or mechanics, in the same trade or occupation. In the event that there is not a majority in the same trade or occupation paid at the same rate, then the average rate of hourly wage and overtime paid to such laborers, workers, or mechanics in the same trade or occupation is the prevailing rate. If the wage paid by any contractor or subcontractor to laborers, workers, or mechanics on any public work is based on some period of time other than an hour, the hourly wage is mathematically determined by the number of hours worked in such period of time.

(2) The "locality" is the largest city in the county wherein the physical work is being performed.

(3) The "usual benefits" includes the amount of:

(a) The rate of contribution irrevocably made by a contractor or subcontractor to a trustee or to a third person pursuant to a fund, plan, or program; and

(b) The rate of costs to the contractor or subcontractor, which may be reasonably anticipated in providing benefits to workers, laborers, and mechanics pursuant to an enforceable commitment to carry out a financially responsible plan or program which was communicated in writing to the workers, laborers, and mechanics affected, for medical or hospital care, pensions on retirement or death, compensation for injuries or illness resulting from occupational activity, or insurance to provide any of the foregoing, for unemployment benefits, life insurance, disability and sickness insurance, or accident insurance, for vacation and holiday pay, for defraying costs of apprenticeship or other similar programs, or for other bona fide fringe benefits, but only where the contractor or subcontractor is not required by other federal, state, or local law to provide any of such benefits.

(4) An "interested party" includes a contractor, subcontractor, an employee of a contractor or subcontractor, an organization whose members' wages, benefits, and conditions of employment are affected by this chapter, and the director of labor and industries or the director's designee.

(5) An "inadvertent filing or reporting error" is a mistake and is made notwithstanding the use of due care by the contractor, subcontractor, or employer. An inadvertent filing or reporting error includes a contractor who, in good faith, relies on a written determination provided by the department of labor and industries and pays its workers, laborers, and mechanics accordingly, but is later found to have not paid the proper prevailing wage rate.

(6) "Unpaid prevailing wages" or "unpaid wages" means the employer fails to pay all of the prevailing rate of wages owed for any workweek by the regularly established pay day for the period in which the workweek ends. Every employer must pay all wages, other than usual benefits, owing to its employees not less than once a month. Every employer must pay all usual benefits owing to its employees by the regularly established deadline for those benefits.

(7) "Rate of contribution" means the effective annual rate of usual benefit contributions for all hours, public and private, worked during the year by an employee (commonly referred to as "annualization" of benefits). The only exemption to the annualization requirements is for defined contribution pension plans that have immediate participation and vesting.

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