House Bill 1433, introduced into the Washington State Legislature, would change the date a worker has to file a claim with the Department of Labor and Industries for unpaid prevailing wages on a public works project, from 30 days from the acceptance date of the project, to 30 days "from the date that an interested party knew or should have known about the potential violation of the payment of prevailing wage requirements."
Negative Impact on Workers: If approved, this bill would have a negative impact on workers not paid prevailing wages. It could be claimed that a worker should have known about being underpaid prevailing wages long before the current standard of 30 days following final acceptance. Thus, a worker would face the standard of filing the claim within 30 days of knowing they had been underpaid, rather than providing them with the option of waiting until after final acceptance. Nothing in the bill would seem to prohibit the worker from directly filing a claim against the retainage up to 45 days after final acceptance, only of filing a claim with L&I for that department to investigate and assist the worker on a claim against the retainage.
Positive Impact on Contractors: Contractors may likely support HB 1433 in that it would provide them with more certainty early on that a potential worker claim wouldn't surface at the end of the project when the contractor is unable to take steps to correct underpayments by a subcontractor. Again, however, nothing in HB 1433 would prevent a worker from directly filing a claim against the retainage up to 45 days after final acceptance, but the worker may not be able to obtain the assistance of L&I to investigate and assist in such a claim.
Mike Purdy's Public Contracting Blog© 2011 by Michael E. Purdy Associates, LLChttp://PublicContracting.blogspot.com
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