AB502 - Revises provisions relating to public works. (BDR 28-401)

- 83rd Session (2025) Assembly Bill No. 502–Committee on Government Affairs CHAPTER.......... AN ACT relating to public works; revising provisions relating to the compliance of a contractor or subcontractor with certain requirements relating to apprentices on a public work; revising requirements relating to identifying numbers for public works; revising provisions relating to the imposition of penalties for certain violations; revising provisions relating to the period within which a person is disqualified from being awarded a contract for a public work in certain circumstances; revising provisions relating to the investigation of certain possible violations; creating the Public Works Compliance Division within the Office of Labor Commissioner and prescribing its duties; providing a penalty; and providing other matters properly relating thereto. Legislative Counsel’s Digest: Existing law sets forth the requirements for the State and its political subdivisions to award a contract for the new construction, repair or reconstruction of specified projects that are financed in whole or in part from public money, known as public works. (Chapter 338 of NRS) Existing law creates the Office of Labor Commissioner and requires the Labor Commissioner to enforce specified provisions relating to employment on public works. (NRS 338.010-338.130, 607.010) Existing law requires contractors or subcontractors engaged on public works to use apprentices for a certain percentage of the total hours performed on a public work, depending on certain conditions related to the public work, and to report certain information regarding the public works for the previous year to the Labor Commissioner, except identifying information about a public work or an apprentice or employee. Existing law further requires a contractor or subcontractor on a public work to maintain and provide to the Labor Commissioner any supporting documentation to show that the contractor or subcontractor made a good faith effort to comply with the apprenticeship requirement. Such a good faith effort includes submitting to an apprenticeship program a request for an apprentice: (1) not earlier than 10 days before the contractor or subcontractor is scheduled to begin work on the public work; and (2) if a contractor or subcontractor does not work continuously on a public work, not earlier than 10 days before the contractor or subcontractor is scheduled to resume work on the public work. (NRS 338.01165) Section 1 of this bill increases the 10-day time limitation on requesting an apprentice to 30 days. Section 1 also removes the exception for not reporting identifying information about a public work, thereby requiring the reporting of such information to the Labor Commissioner. Existing law, in part, requires a public body that undertakes a public work to: (1) request an identifying number with a designation of the work and include the number in any advertisement or other type of solicitation; and (2) report to the Labor Commissioner the award of a contract within 10 days after the award and subsequently report the completion of the work under the contract. (NRS 338.013) Section 2 of this bill requires that a public body request such an identifying number not less than 3 business days before any advertisement or other type of solicitation – 2 – - 83rd Session (2025) for the public work is published or made, as applicable. Section 2 also authorizes a penalty for each calendar day or portion thereof that a public body is not in compliance with the reporting requirements. Under existing law, if an administrative penalty is imposed against a person for a violation of certain provisions relating to public works, the Labor Commissioner is authorized to prohibit the person from being awarded a contract for a public work: (1) for the first offense, for a period of 3 years after the date of the imposition of the administrative penalty; and (2) for the second or subsequent offense, for a period of 5 years after the date of the imposition of the administrative penalty. (NRS 338.017) Section 4 of this bill revises the duration of the period of the disqualification as follows: (1) for the first offense, for a period of up to 180 days after the date of the imposition of the administrative penalty; (2) for the second offense, for a period of up to 3 years but not less than 180 days after the date of the imposition of the administrative penalty; (3) for the third offense, for a period of up to 5 years but not less than 3 years after the date of the imposition of the administrative penalty; and (4) for the fourth or subsequent offense, for a period of not less than 5 years after the date of the imposition of the administrative penalty. Existing law requires any public body awarding a contract for a public work to investigate possible violations of certain laws relating to public works and determine whether a violation has been committed and inform the Labor Commissioner of any such violations. (NRS 338.070) Section 5 of this bill requires a public body, within 90 days after substantial completion of a contract for a public work, to: (1) conduct an investigation and make a determination regarding any violation; or (2) refer the matter to the Public Works Compliance Division, which is created within the Office of Labor Commissioner in section 8 of this bill. Section 7 of this bill requires the Division to: (1) investigate possible violations of certain laws relating to public works at the direction of the Labor Commissioner or upon receipt of a referral from a public body; (2) submit to the Labor Commissioner a written report concerning such an investigation and, if applicable, provide a copy of the report to the referring public body upon completion of the investigation; and (3) perform any other duties related to the enforcement of certain provisions relating to public works, as directed by the Labor Commissioner. Sections 9 and 10 of this bill make conforming changes related to the creation of the Division. Existing law requires a public body to withhold and retain from payments to a contractor on a public work sums that are forfeited as a result of the violation of certain laws relating to public works. Existing law also prohibits any sums from being withheld, retained or forfeited, except from the final payment, without a full investigation being made by the awarding public body. (NRS 338.070) Section 5 requires a public body who refers the investigation of possible offenses to the Division to withhold and retain all sums believed to be forfeited by the violation of such laws until an investigation has been completed by the Division and the Labor Commissioner has determined if any violations were committed. Section 5 authorizes the Labor Commissioner to impose against a public body that fails to investigate possible violations of certain laws relating to a public work or refer possible violations to the Public Works Compliance Division within the prescribed time period: (1) a fee of $1,000 for each contractor or subcontractor found to be in violation of such provisions; and (2) an administrative penalty of $2,000 for each contractor or subcontractor found to be in violation of such provisions. Section 5 also prohibits a public body from withholding from any contractor or subcontractor engaged on a public work any amount due to the contractor or subcontractor in order to recover any fee or penalty assessed against the public body by the Labor Commissioner pursuant to section 5. – 3 – - 83rd Session (2025) EXPLANATION – Matter in bolded italics is new; matter between brackets [omitted material] is material to be omitted. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: Section 1. NRS 338.01165 is hereby amended to read as follows: 338.01165 1. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter and except as otherwise provided in this section, a contractor or subcontractor engaged in vertical construction who employs workers on one or more public works during a calendar year pursuant to NRS 338.040 shall use one or more apprentices for at least 10 percent, or any increased percentage established pursuant to subsection 3, of the total hours of labor worked for each apprenticed craft or type of work to be performed on those public works. 2. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter and except as otherwise provided in this section, a contractor or subcontractor engaged in horizontal construction who employs workers on one or more public works during a calendar year pursuant to NRS 338.040 shall use one or more apprentices for at least 3 percent, or any increased percentage established pursuant to subsection 3, of the total hours of labor worked for each apprenticed craft or type of work to be performed on those public works. 3. On or after January 1, 2021, the Labor Commissioner, in collaboration with the State Apprenticeship Council, may adopt regulations to increase the percentage of total hours of labor required to be performed by an apprentice pursuant to subsection 1 or 2 by not more than 2 percentage points. 4. An apprentice who graduates from an apprenticeship program while employed on a public work shall: (a) Be deemed an apprentice on the public work for the purposes of subsections 1 and 2. (b) Be deemed a journeyman for all other purposes, including, without limitation, the payment of wages or the payment of wages and benefits to a journeyman covered by a collective bargaining agreement. 5. If a contractor or subcontractor who is a signatory to a collective bargaining agreement with a union that sponsors an apprenticeship program for an apprenticed craft or type of work for which the term of apprenticeship is not more than 3 years requests an apprentice from that apprenticeship program and an apprentice in the appropriate craft or type of work is not available, the contractor – 4 – - 83rd Session (2025) or subcontractor may utilize a person who graduated from the apprenticeship program in that craft or type of work within the 3 years immediately preceding the request from the contractor or subcontractor. Such a person: (a) Shall be deemed an apprentice on the public work for the purposes of subsections 1 and 2. (b) Shall be deemed a journeyman for all other purposes, including, without limitation, the payment of wages and benefits to a journeyman pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement. 6. A contractor or subcontractor engaged on a public work is not required to use an apprentice in a craft or type of work performed in a jurisdiction recognized by the State Apprenticeship Council as not having apprentices in that craft or type of work. 7. A contractor or subcontractor engaged on a public work shall maintain and provide to the Labor Commissioner any supporting documentation to show that the contractor or subcontractor made a good faith effort to comply with subsection 1 or 2, as applicable, as determined by the Labor Commissioner. For purposes of this subsection, a contractor or subcontractor: (a) Makes a good faith effort to comply with subsection 1 or 2, as applicable, if the contractor or subcontractor: (1) Submits to the apprenticeship program, on the form prescribed by the Labor Commissioner, a request for an apprentice not earlier than [10] 30 days before the contractor or subcontractor is scheduled to begin work on the public work and not later than 5 days after the contractor or subcontractor actually begins work on the public work. (2) If the apprenticeship program does not provide an apprentice for the appropriate apprenticed craft or type of work upon a request pursuant to subparagraph (1), submits additional requests to the apprenticeship program, on the form prescribed by the Labor Commissioner, at least once every 30 days during the period that the contractor or subcontractor is working on the public work. If a contractor or subcontractor does not work continuously on the public work, the contractor or subcontractor shall submit an additional request each time that the contractor or subcontractor resumes work on the public work not earlier than [10] 30 days before the contractor or subcontractor is scheduled to resume work on the public work and not later than 5 days after the contractor or subcontractor actually resumes work on the public work. The requirement for the submission of an additional request in this subparagraph does not apply whenever a contractor or subcontractor – 5 – - 83rd Session (2025) has one or more apprentices employed for that apprenticed craft or type of work. (b) Does not make a good faith effort to comply with subsection 1 or 2, as applicable, as determined by the Labor Commissioner, if the contractor or subcontractor is required to enter into an apprenticeship agreement pursuant to subsection 16 and refuses to do so. 8. The supporting documentation required pursuant to subsection 7 may include, without limitation: (a) Documentation of the submission by the contractor or subcontractor of one or more requests, as applicable, pursuant to subsection 7; and (b) Documentation that the apprenticeship program denied such a request, did not respond to such a request or responded that the program was unable to provide the requested apprentice. 9. The contractor or subcontractor and the apprenticeship program shall coordinate the starting date for any apprentice provided by the program. 10. On or before February 15 of each year, a contractor or subcontractor engaged in vertical or horizontal construction, as applicable, who employs a worker on one or more public works pursuant to NRS 338.040 shall report to the Labor Commissioner, on the form prescribed by the Labor Commissioner, the following information regarding those public works for the previous calendar year: (a) For each apprenticed craft or type of work, the total number of hours worked on vertical construction. (b) For each apprenticed craft or type of work, the total number of hours worked on horizontal construction. (c) For each apprenticed craft or type of work, the total number of hours worked by apprentices on vertical construction. (d) For each apprenticed craft or type of work, the total number of hours worked by apprentices on horizontal construction. (e) For each apprenticed craft or type of work, the percentage of the total number of hours worked on vertical construction that were worked by apprentices. (f) For each apprenticed craft or type of work, the percentage of the total number of hours worked on horizontal construction that were worked by apprentices. [Text truncated for display. Full text available on LegiScan.]