Bill Text: CA AB1865 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Contractors: trust or custodial benefits plans: health benefits.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)

Status: (Failed) 2016-06-02 - From committee: Without further action pursuant to Joint Rule 62(a). [AB1865 Detail]

Download: California-2015-AB1865-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 1865	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Patterson

                        FEBRUARY 10, 2016

   An act to add Chapter 2.5 (commencing with Section 325) to Part 1
of Division 2 of the Labor Code, relating to contractors.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1865, as introduced, Patterson. Contractors: trust or custodial
benefits plans: health benefits.
   Existing federal law, the federal Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act (PPACA), enacts various health care coverage
market reforms that take effect January 1, 2014. Among other things,
the PPACA requires a health insurance issuer that offers coverage in
the small group or individual market to ensure that the coverage
includes the essential health benefits package, as defined, and
describes essential health benefits for that purpose.
   Existing law states that it is the policy of this state to
vigorously enforce the laws requiring employers to secure the payment
of compensation for workers, as specified. Existing law defines a
project labor agreement, as specified. Under existing law, a project
labor agreement may include a trust or custodial benefit plan to
provide health and welfare or similar benefits for workers.
   This bill would exempt a contractor that bids on or has been
awarded work covered by a project labor agreement entered into on or
after January 1, 2017, which contractor provides health care coverage
to workers on the project subject to the agreement that includes
certain essential health benefits and which provides evidence of that
coverage to the entity awarding the contract, from a project labor
agreement requirement to pay into a trust or custodial benefit plan
for health and welfare or similar benefits for those workers, in an
amount equal to the amount that the contractor would otherwise have
been required to pay into that trust or custodial benefit plan for
health care costs for those workers.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Chapter 2.5 (commencing with Section 325) is added to
Part 1 of Division 2 of the Labor Code, to read:
      CHAPTER 2.5.  CONTRACTORS: EMPLOYEE HEALTH BENEFITS.


   325.  As used in this chapter:
   (a) "Project labor agreement" means a prehire collective
bargaining agreement entered into on or after January 1, 2017, that
establishes the terms and conditions of employment for a specific
construction project and is an agreement described in Section 158(f)
of Title 29 of the United States Code.
   (b) "PPACA" means the federal Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act (Public Law 111-148), as amended by the federal Health Care
and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Public law 111-152), and
any rules, regulations, or guidance issued thereunder.
   326.  (a) A contractor that bids on or has been awarded work
covered by a project labor agreement, which contractor provides
health care coverage to workers on the project subject to the
agreement that includes essential health benefits as described in the
PPACA in Section 18022 of Title 42 of the United States Code, and
which provides evidence of that coverage to the entity awarding the
contract, is exempt from a project labor agreement requirement to pay
into a trust or custodial benefit plan designated by the project
labor agreement to provide health and welfare or similar benefits for
those workers, in an amount equal to the amount that the contractor
would otherwise have been required to pay into that trust or
custodial benefit plan for health care costs for those workers.
   (b) This chapter does not apply to labor union members covered by
a multiemployer plan authorized under Section 302(c)(5) of the
federal Taft-Hartley Act (29 U.S.C. Sec. 186(c)(5)) that provides
health care coverage who are dispatched by a labor union hiring hall
to a project awarded to a nonunion contractor.