AB 1913: Foreign labor contractors.

Existing law requires the Labor Commissioner to enforce and administer a program to register and supervise foreign labor contractors who perform foreign labor contracting activities to recruit or solicit foreign workers. Existing law defines terms for its purposes, including defining foreign worker to mean any person seeking employment who is not a United States citizen or permanent resident but who is authorized by the federal government to work in the United States, including a person who engages in temporary nonagricultural labor pursuant to existing federal law. Existing law requires foreign labor contractors to register under the program, as prescribed, and imposes specific requirements relating to recruitment or solicitation for employment and to work contracts. Existing law authorizes the Labor Commissioner to adopt regulations or policies and procedures to implement these provisions. A violation of these provisions is a crime. Existing law limits the application of these provisions to nonagricultural workers, as defined.

Existing law provides that these provisions apply only to nonagricultural workers, as defined, and that they do not apply to a person licensed as a farm labor contractor, as defined, to any person exempt from specified licensing requirements, or to an employer employing agricultural workers, as defined.

This bill would delete those limitations. By expanding the application of the foreign labor contractor provisions, this bill would expand an existing crime, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program.

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.

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