Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, May 02, 2023
Consent
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION CONDEMNING CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY LABOR LAW VIOLATIONS (CITY COUNCIL)
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I. SUMMARY
This item is on the agenda at the request of Mayor Davis-Holmes and transmits Resolution 23-080 for City Council consideration to formally condemn construction industry labor law violations.
Violation of wage and hour, income tax, employment tax, discrimination, safety, and workers' compensation laws are an issue of major concern in the construction industry. The construction industry in the State of California features an extensive underground sector in which workers are misclassified as independent contractors or paid in cash off the books, denying the public necessary tax revenues and denying workers the protection of wage and hour laws - this has been referred to as construction's "underground economy."
While this has long been the case in single-family residential construction and renovation, today this form of workplace fraud has penetrated the largest commercial construction sites in California. A study from the Los Angeles-based Economic Roundtable found that more than 143,900 jobs - or one out of six jobs - in California's $152 billion construction industry were part of the so-called underground economy in 2011. Of those, 104,100 jobs were unreported by employers and more than 39,000 employees were misclassified as independent contractors.
Adoption of this Resolution affirms the commitment of the City Council to condemn such construction industry labor law violations.
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
APPROVE and ADOPT Resolution 23-080 included as Exhibit 1.
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III. ALTERNATIVES
TAKE another action the City Council deems appropriate and that is consistent with applicable laws.
IV. BACKGROUND
The City of Carson currently takes numerous measures, including but not limited to the following, to prevent the aforementioned abuses from occurring on Cit...
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