Legal Question in Employment Law in California
California Labor Code Section 1773.8 : I keep seeing this come up as regards to paying subsistence pay on Prevailing Wage projects. This section does not appear when I search through the Labor Code. My company is currently on a jobsite in San Francisco. Is it required by law (Labor Code) that the subsistence pay be paid prior to employees arriving on a project? and where do you find this in writing?
1 Answer from Attorneys
That section was ruled unconstitutional some years ago and no longer appears in the Labor Code. There is an Assembly Bill that would add a new section 1773.8 that has passed the Assembly and is being sent to the Senate. It is, of course, not yet law at that stage.
I am a former member of the City Attorney's staff in San Francisco, having served on the Construction Team, and then as Construction Counsel to the SFO Airport Commission, and I know of no requirement that per diem pay be provided before employees work on the project. If your project is a City of S.F. project (as opposed to a state or other jurisdiction's project in the city), let me know which department or agency it is for and I can see if their prevailing wage enforcement people have any different opinion.