SB 1402: Labor contracting: customer liability.

Existing law requires a client employer to share with a labor contractor all civil legal responsibility and civil liability for all workers supplied by that labor contractor for the payment of wages and the failure to obtain valid workers compensation coverage. Existing law also prohibits a client employer from shifting to the labor contractor legal duties or liabilities under workplace safety provisions with respect to workers provided by the labor contractor. Existing law defines terms for these purposes and authorizes the Labor Commissioner to adopt regulations and rules of practice and procedure necessary to administer and enforce these provisions. Existing law excludes certain types of employers from these provisions, including, but not limited to, a client employer that is not a motor carrier of property based solely on the employers use of a third-party motor carrier of property with interstate or intrastate operating authority to ship or receive freight, and a client employer that is a motor carrier of property subcontracting with, or otherwise engaging, another motor carrier of property to provide transportation services using its own employees and commercial motor vehicles.

This bill would require a customer that, as part of its business, engages or uses to perform port drayage services a port drayage motor carrier, as defined, that is on a list established by the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement and posted on its Internet Web site pursuant to the bill to share with the motor carrier all civil legal responsibility and civil liability for port drayage services obtained after the date the motor carrier appeared on the list, as specified. The bill would require the division to notify a port drayage motor carrier at least 15 business days before adding the port drayage motor carrier to its Internet Web site and would require a port drayage motor carrier who provides port drayage services to a customer, prior to providing those services, and within 30 business days of entry of the judgment, to furnish prescribed notice to the customer concerning unsatisfied judgments against the motor carrier for unpaid wages, damages, unreimbursed expenses, and penalties. The bill would define terms for its purposes, including defining customer, with certain exceptions, to mean a business entity, regardless of its form, that engages or uses a port drayage motor carrier to perform port drayage services on the customers behalf, as described. The bill would prohibit a customer and a port drayage motor carrier from taking any adverse action against a commercial driver for providing notification of violations or filing a claim or civil action. The bill would, with certain exceptions, not apply the joint and severable liability to customers who engage a drayage motor carrier whose employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement or to a customer who wishes to terminate an existing contract until the termination date or until 90 business days following the listing of the drayage motor carrier on the divisions Internet Web site, whichever is shorter. The bill would require a customer or port drayage motor carrier to provide to the Labor Commissioner, and make available for copying, information within its possession, custody, or control required to verify compliance with applicable state laws. The bill would authorize the Labor Commissioner and the Employment Development Department to adopt necessary regulations and rules to administer and enforce the bills provisions. The bill would provide that waiver of its provisions is contrary to public policy, void, and unenforceable. The bill would provide that its provisions are severable.