The Davis-Bacon and Related Acts (DBRA) require contractors performing work on federally funded or assisted contracts for the construction, alteration, or repair of public buildings or public works above $2,000 to pay their laborers and mechanics no less than the locally prevailing wages and fringe benefits as determined by the Secretary of Labor.

A crucial question many workers and labor unions face is whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. The question arises because employees receive unemployment benefits, and they are protected under wage and hour laws, workers compensation, and workplace discrimination laws. Employees are also covered by the National Labor Relations Act, meaning they have a legal right to organize unions. Independent contractors do not receive these same protections.

In Stericycle Inc., 372 NLRB No. 113 (2023), the National Labor Relations Board established a new union-friendly standard for evaluating employer handbooks and work rules. Under the new standard, the Board must analyze whether the work rule has a reasonable tendency to chill employees from engaging in protected union-related activities. In doing so, the Board first must interpret the work rule from “the perspective of the reasonable employee who is economically dependent on her employer” and who is contemplating how the rule might impact their protected rights.

In Lion Elastomers LLC II, 372 NLRB No. 83 (2023), the National Labor Relations Board overruled a bad anti-Union decision from 2020 and restored the long-established “setting-specific” standard for evaluating cases where employees are disciplined for alleged misconduct that occurs while the worker is engaged in protected activity.

Under the “setting-specific” standard, the Board evaluates the severity of an employee’s misconduct and the context in which it took place under three different tests

In August 2022, President Biden signed the transformational, $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The IRA provides massive tax credits for energy efficient buildings, home, and EV charging stations—if the contractor provides good jobs for their workers. Most of these tax credits are not available unless contractors: (1) offer jobs to apprentices, and (2) pay prevailing wages. Contractors can receive five times the base tax credit for projects that meet these requirements.

In a February 2023 decision, the NLRB overruled two Trump-era rulings that permitted employers to offer employees severance agreements that require employees to broadly waive their rights under Section 7 of the NLRA, and had also limited the Board’s review of severance agreements to the circumstances under which the severance agreement was presented to the employees. In the decision in McLaren Macomb, the NLRB returned to prior precedent of reviewing the language of the proffered severance agreement to determine whether the language would have a reasonable tendency to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees’ exercise of their Section 7 rights.

In November 2022, President Biden’s appointees at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) proposed the Fair Choice and Employee Voice rule to reestablish the “blocking charge” policy for private sector employees, and other changes related to recognition. Former president Donald Trump’s NLRB appointees changed the blocking charge policy in 2020. Before the 2020 change, the rules had been in place since the 1930s.

In November 2022, President Biden’s appointees at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) proposed the Fair Choice and Employee Voice rule to reestablish the “blocking charge” policy for private sector employees, and other changes related to recognition. Former president Donald Trump’s NLRB appointees changed the blocking charge policy in 2020. Before the 2020 change, the rules had been in place since the 1930s.

On August 16, 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 into law. The Act allocates federal funds and provides new tax credits for a variety of initiatives, from fighting climate change to lowering health care costs.

As part of California’s health care spending budget for the coming year, Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation that awards $1,000 each to employees of community health clinics, in the form of a one-time bonus.

Governor Newsom signed into law on September 19, 2022, Assembly Bill 2188 that provides greater protections to employees against discipline based on the results of drug tests that show cannabis use away from work.

On September 27, 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 1162, also known as the Pay Transparency for Pay Equity Act, to tackle discriminatory pay gaps in the workforce. California will now be the largest state where job applicant pay information will be mandated by law.

Assembly Bill 1851 expands the definition of “public works” to include on-hauling of construction material if the “individual driver’s work is integrated into the flow process of construction.” In doing so, AB 1851 codifies the legal precedent in this area, most notably O. G. Sansone Co. v. Department of Transportation (1976) 55 Cal.App.3d 434.

Under existing law, contractors on public works projects must pay their construction worker employees the prevailing wage for the appropriate classification of work. Contractors are also required to provide electronic certified payroll records that reflect this correct payment to the Labor Commissioner on a monthly basis, per California Labor Code §§ 1771.4 and 1776 (“eCPRs”).

Under current law, the California Workforce Development Board (“CWDB”) is required to conduct an evaluation of workforce program outcomes as required and permitted by various local, state, and federal laws. The CWDB uses wage and employment data from the California Employment Development Department (“EDD”)—which administers state unemployment—to conduct such evaluations.