Legal Question in Employment Law in California

hello,

i'm a general contractor who has been awarded a job that will receive federal money in the form of a HUD loan. this is for a 308-unit apartment rehab. the federal financing kicks in DBA, that i'm aware of. however, i had heard that if the developer signs a project labor agreement (pla) with the local trade associations, that the wage determination would default to those wages established in the pla vs. those prescribed in DBA. is this true? if it were true, my client could negotiate rates with the locals and reduce his cost on this project. please advise. thanks.


Asked on 7/22/10, 5:37 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

1. PLA's rarely, if ever, cover wages. They are basically union-shop agreements that require all trades on the job to go to unionized subcontractors and a no-lock-out agreement, in exchange for a no-strike and no job action agreement along with a streamlined grievance procedure. Union wages are union wages. They don't discount them for PLA's, and in fact that would violate the contracts that are already in place with all the unionized employers. 2. Union wages for all intents and purposes ARE the Davis-Bacon wages prevailing. I have never heard of a locality where Davis-Bacon wages were higher than union wages.

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Answered on 7/23/10, 12:06 am


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