Public works refers to all work, construction, alteration, repair, or improvement, other than ordinary maintenance, executed at the cost of the state or municipality. Under current law, before award of a public works contract, a bidder must meet certain responsibility criteria to be considered a responsible bidder and thus qualified to be awarded a public works contract. To be considered a responsible bidder, the bidder must:
Bidders must designate a person or persons to be trained on public works and prevailing wage, which must be provided by L&I or a provider whose curriculum is approved by L&I. A bidder who has completed three or more public works projects and have held a valid Washington business license for three or more years are exempt. L&I must keep records of entities that have satisfied the training requirements or are exempt, and post these records on its website. Responsible parties may rely on the records.
Compliance with Responsible Bidder Criteria. Bidders must submit a signed statement under penalty of perjury that they have not been found by L&I or a court to have willfully violated the state's wage payment laws within the three-year period prior to bid solicitation. Contracting agencies may reasonably rely on this sworn statement in awarding a contract.
Apprentice Utilization Criteria. Broadly, apprentice utilization criteria require that on public works projects estimated to cost $1 million or more, at least 15 percent of the labor hours must be performed by apprentices enrolled in approved apprenticeship training programs. This requirement applies to contracts awarded by the state, school districts, and state four-year higher education institutions. Awarding agencies may adjust apprenticeship utilization requirements for certain reasons, such as an insufficient number of apprentices in a certain geographic area.
If a bidder has a history of receiving monetary penalties for not achieving apprentice utilization requirements or is habitual in using the good faith exception process, the bidder must submit an apprenticeship utilization plan within ten business days immediately following notice to proceed. Apprenticeship utilization plans detail verifiable efforts to meet apprentice utilization requirements.
Beginning July 1, 2026, in addition to existing bidder responsibility criteria outlined in current law, for public works projects subject to apprentice utilization requirements, the bidder must submit an apprentice utilization plan to the awarding agency before receiving the notice to proceed. A contracting agency may exempt a bidder from these requirements if the bidder met or exceeded apprentice utilization requirements on its last completed public works project. In determining bidder eligibility for exemption, contracting agencies may rely on L&I records.
L&I shall develop an apprentice utilization plan template and make it available to awarding agencies and bidders. The plan template must include, at minimum:
Awarding agencies may develop their own templates that meet these minimum requirements, subject to approval by L&I. Completed apprentice utilization plans must be published on the L&I website.
Beginning July 1, 2027, to meet responsible bidder criteria, a bidder must have: (1) completed at least one public works project and have not been cited for a violation within the previous three years, or (2) have at least one designated person who is a current employee or office who has received training on public works and prevailing wage in the previous three years. L&I must keep records of individuals who have satisfied the training requirements in the past three years and post these records to its website.
L&I must publish available information on its website so contracting agencies can verify a bidder's compliance with the responsible bidder criteria. In addition to reasonably relying on a bidder's sworn statement that the bidder has not been found to have willfully violated the state's wage payment laws within the three year period prior to bid solicitation, contracting agencies must verify that a bidder meets the other responsible bidder criteria based on the available information on L&I's website.
PRO: The bill before you is the result of four years of stakeholder input and revisions. We know that apprenticeships are a pathway to success for both employers and workers, but right now there are a lot of employers and contractors who don't know exactly where to find apprentices. One of the main goals of this policy is to help educate and assist contractors in being able to locate and source apprentices to meet existing apprenticeship requirements for public works projects. Importantly, this bill does not impose any new criteria or penalties, and instead fosters collaboration to ensure both contractors and apprentices have access to opportunities for success.
We are asking for the state to ensure there are opportunities to put apprentices on job sites. There are over 1700 apprentices on worklists and another 8000 Washingtonians looking to get into apprenticeship programs. Apprenticeship does not happen without a job, and this bill will help create those job placements so that we can put more apprentices into the system. Another key aspect of this bill is the aggregation of required information about meeting each of the responsible bidder criteria into a single, accessible location. This feature reduces the complexity of searching multiple data sources, ultimately bringing ease to everyone involved by centralizing the information. This improves efficiency but also ensures greater transparency and accountability.
OTHER: The obligations related to apprenticeship utilization, prevailing wage, and other contract requirements on public works projects contribute to the high learning curve and complexity of compliance. We know that about half of the firms that win their first public works contract do not return to the marketplace for their second opportunity. This reduces competition and increases costs of projects. This also reduces opportunities for local workers. I am asking the committee to consider building in technical assistance and training when changes are made to allow for correct implementation by local governments. The pathway to compliance begins with technical assistance and training.