AB 235: Apprenticeship and preapprenticeship.

(1)Existing law provides for apprenticeship programs within the Division of Apprenticeship Standards within the Department of Industrial Relations, sponsored by specific entities and employers, and requires the Chief of the Division of Apprenticeship Standards to perform various functions with respect to apprenticeship programs and the welfare of apprentices.

Existing law also establishes the California Apprenticeship Council within the Division of Apprenticeship Standards (division), and requires the council to aid the Director of Industrial Relations (director) in formulating policies with respect to apprentice regulation. Existing law requires the membership of the council to be composed of specified persons, and requires the council to meet at the call of the director. Existing law authorizes the council to issue rules and regulations to establish apprenticeship standards. Existing law provides that any person who willfully discriminates in any recruitment or apprenticeship program, as specified, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

The bill would establish the Interagency Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship (committee) within the division, and would require that committee to provide advice and guidance to the Administrator of Apprenticeship and the chief on apprenticeship programs, standards, and agreements, as well as preapprenticeship, certification, and on-the-job training and retraining programs, in nonbuilding trades industries. The bill would require the membership of the committee to be composed of specified ex officio members of various departments and 6 persons appointed by the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development who are familiar with specified apprenticeable occupations that meet specified requirements. The bill would require the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development to designate a chair of the committee, and would establish rules and procedures for meetings of the committee.

The bill would revise the provisions relating to the California Apprenticeship Council (council) by increasing the membership of the council to include the Chairperson of the California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee, and removing the requirement that the council meet at the call of the director and aid the director in the formulation of policies with respect to apprentice regulation. The bill would specifically remove the authority of the council over apprenticeship programs in nonbuilding and nonfirefighter trades and would transfer that authority to the chief, but would continue to authorize the council to issue rules and regulations that establish standards for apprenticeship agreements in the building and construction trades and for firefighter occupations, subject to certain standards. The bill would authorize the chief, in consultation with the committee, to issue rules and regulations that establish minimum wages, maximum hours, and working conditions for apprenticeship agreements in nonbuilding and nonfirefighter trades subject to certain standards, and would provide that specified regulations remain in effect until new regulations are issued by the chief.

This bill would require the division, by January 1, 2019, to establish a preapprenticeship program for the purpose of establishing eligibility for any state programs, and would establish standards and procedures for the approval of a preapprenticeship program, such as requiring the program to include specified elements.

This bill would modify a process whereby decisions of the chief and the council relating to apprenticeship programs are posted, can be appealed, and become final. The bill would also establish standards governing how the term of apprenticeship may be measured.

The bill would also revise and reorganize provisions relating to apprenticeship programs, and would make conforming changes in various codes.

This bill would expand the scope of an existing crime with respect to willful violations of provisions of the law related to discrimination in apprenticeship and preapprenticeship programs, and would thereby impose a state-mandated local program.

(2)Existing law authorizes the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, to the extent that funds are available, to establish certain internship training programs and to actively support apprenticeship training programs in collaboration with the Division of Apprenticeship Standards of the Department of Industrial Relations. Existing law requires the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to allocate funds for approved apprenticeship programs in good standing and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to allocate funds solely for the purposes of reimbursing community colleges.

The bill would revise those provisions to include approved preapprenticeship training programs and the development of approved preapprenticeship training demonstration projects. This bill would require that any funding allocated pursuant to those provisions be exclusively used for approved apprenticeship training programs, and would prohibit those funds to be used for the purposes of preapprenticeship.

(3)Existing law requires the Chief of the Division of Apprenticeship Standards and the California Apprenticeship Council to report annually through the Director of Industrial Relations on the activities of the division and the council, and further requires that the report include specified information with respect to apprenticeship programs in this state.

This bill would require the chief to include within that annual report specified information related to apprenticeship programs that were allocated funds by the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges in accordance with the process described above.

(4)Existing law authorizes specific governmental entities in San Diego to enter into a joint powers agreement to create and operate a joint powers agency known as the San Diego Model School Development Agency for the development and construction of a specified model school project. Existing law requires construction workers employed as apprentices by contractors and subcontractors on contracts awarded by the agency to be enrolled in a registered apprenticeship program, approved by the council, that has graduated apprentices in the same craft in each of the preceding five years.

This bill would delete these joint powers agency provisions.

(5)The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

(6)This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 3073.5 of the Labor Code proposed by AB 3231 to be operative only if this bill and AB 3231 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.