Bill Text: NY S04887 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced


Bill Title: Enacts the "roadway excavation quality assurance act"; relates to workers on excavations; provides that utility companies or their contractors shall use competent workers and shall pay the prevailing wage on projects where a permit to use, excavate, or open a street is required to be issued.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 31-4)

Status: (Passed) 2023-08-16 - SIGNED CHAP.278 [S04887 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S04887-Introduced.html



                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          4887

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                    February 16, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced by Sens. GIANARIS, ADDABBO, BAILEY, BRESLIN, BRISPORT, BROUK,
          COMRIE,  COONEY, GOUNARDES, HARCKHAM, HINCHEY, HOYLMAN-SIGAL, JACKSON,
          KAVANAGH, KENNEDY, LIU, MANNION, MATTERA, MAY, MAYER, MYRIE,  PERSAUD,
          RAMOS,  RIVERA,  RYAN,  SALAZAR,  SANDERS, SERRANO, SKOUFIS, STAVISKY,
          THOMAS -- read twice and ordered  printed,  and  when  printed  to  be
          committed to the Committee on Labor

        AN  ACT  to  amend  the  labor law, in relation to enacting the "roadway
          excavation quality assurance act"

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.  Short  title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
     2  the "roadway excavation quality assurance act".
     3    § 2. The labor law is amended by adding a new section 224-f to read as
     4  follows:
     5    § 224-f. Workers on excavations. 1.  For the purposes of this section:
     6    a. "Covered excavation project" shall mean construction work for which
     7  a permit may be issued to a contractor or  subcontractor  of  a  utility
     8  company  by  the  state, a county or a municipality to use, excavate, or
     9  open  a  street.    A  "covered  excavation   project"   shall   exclude
    10  construction work for which a permit may be issued to a service provided
    11  as  defined by subdivision twenty-three of section one thousand twenty-b
    12  of the public authorities law.
    13    b. "Department of jurisdiction"  shall  mean  the  department  of  the
    14  state,  board  or  officer  in  the  state,  or municipal corporation or
    15  commission or board appointed pursuant to law, whose duty it is to issue
    16  a permit to a utility company, or its contractors or subcontractors, for
    17  a covered excavation project.
    18    c. "Fiscal officer" shall mean the commissioner;  except  for  covered
    19  excavation projects performed pursuant to a permit issued by a city with
    20  a population in excess of one million in which case the "fiscal officer"
    21  shall be the comptroller or other analogous officer of such city.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD08346-01-3

        S. 4887                             2

     1    d.  "Utility company" shall have the same meaning as subdivision twen-
     2  ty-three of section two of the public service law.
     3    2.  Each  contractor  or  subcontractor  to a utility company shall be
     4  required to pay not less than the prevailing rate of wage  in  the  same
     5  trade  or occupation in the locality within the state where such covered
     6  excavation project is situated to each laborer, worker, or  mechanic  in
     7  the  employ  of  the  contractor  or subcontractor to a utility company,
     8  performing work on the project in accordance with sections  two  hundred
     9  twenty  and  two  hundred  twenty-b of this article.  No permit shall be
    10  issued for a covered excavation project until  an  agreement  confirming
    11  the  payment of wages as required by this section has been contractually
    12  mandated and filed with the department of jurisdiction, and all  permits
    13  issued  after the effective date of this section shall include therein a
    14  copy of this section.
    15    3. The enforcement of any covered excavation project pursuant to  this
    16  section  shall  be  subject  to the requirements of sections two hundred
    17  twenty, two hundred twenty-a, two hundred twenty-b, two hundred  twenty-
    18  three  and  two  hundred  twenty-four-b  of this article and section two
    19  hundred twenty-seven of this chapter and within the jurisdiction of  the
    20  fiscal  officer;  provided,  however,  nothing contained in this section
    21  shall be deemed to construe any covered excavation project as  otherwise
    22  being considered public work pursuant to this article.
    23    4.  The  fiscal  officer may issue rules and regulations governing the
    24  provisions of this section. Any  violation  of  this  section  shall  be
    25  grounds  for  determinations  and orders pursuant to section two hundred
    26  twenty-b of this article.
    27    § 3.  Paragraph e of subdivision 3-a of section 220 of the labor  law,
    28  as  added  by  chapter  591  of  the laws of 2008, is amended to read as
    29  follows:
    30    e. (i) Utility companies [and their  contractors  and  subcontractors]
    31  who, under local law or ordinance, are required, as a condition of issu-
    32  ance  of a permit to use or open a street, to agree that none but compe-
    33  tent workers, skilled in the work required of  them  shall  be  employed
    34  thereon and that prevailing scale of union wages shall be the prevailing
    35  wage  for the similar titles as established by the fiscal officer pursu-
    36  ant to this section, paid to those so employed,  shall  be  required  to
    37  keep  original  payrolls or transcripts thereof, subscribed and sworn to
    38  or affirmed by him or her  as  true  under  the  penalties  of  perjury,
    39  setting  forth  the  names  and  addresses and showing for each workman,
    40  laborer, or mechanic the hours and days worked, the occupations  worked,
    41  the  hourly wage rates paid and the supplements paid or provided as, and
    42  in the manner required by paragraphs a, b and c of this subdivision.
    43    (ii) Utility company contractors and subcontractors to whom  a  permit
    44  may be issued, to use or open a street, shall be required to comply with
    45  section two hundred twenty-four-f of this article, as a condition of the
    46  issuance  of  a  permit  to use or open a street, to agree that none but
    47  competent workers, skilled  in  the  work  required  of  them  shall  be
    48  employed  thereon  and that prevailing scale of union wages shall be the
    49  prevailing wage for the similar titles  as  established  by  the  fiscal
    50  officer  pursuant  to  this section, paid to those so employed, shall be
    51  required to keep original payrolls or  transcripts  thereof,  subscribed
    52  and  sworn  to  or affirmed by him or her as true under the penalties of
    53  perjury, setting forth the names and  addresses  and  showing  for  each
    54  workman, laborer, or mechanic the hours and days worked, the occupations
    55  worked,  the hourly wage rates paid and the supplements paid or provided

        S. 4887                             3

     1  as, and in the manner required by paragraphs a, b and c of this subdivi-
     2  sion.
     3    §  4.  This  act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall
     4  have become a law and shall apply  to  all  contracts  for  construction
     5  executed and permits issued on or after such date.
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