Once in a while a contractor complains to me that an outside organization is harvesting employees’ personal information from the company’s certified payroll records submitted (as required in law in California Labor Code Section 1776) to a local government agency.  Sometimes the employees are contacted because union-affiliated Joint Labor-Management Committees have legally obtained employee addresses in certified payroll records.

Yes, this is legal, thanks to Senate Bill 588, signed into law by Governor Gray Davis in 2001.  See California Labor Code Section 1776(e).  Labor-Management Committees have a special right to get certified payroll records that expose the addresses of employees, while the rest of the public does not get to see names, addresses, or social security numbers.

In October 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a federal district court’s decision denying a preliminary injunction to prevent the County of Sacramento from releasing addresses of an electrical contractor’s employees on certified payroll records to the “Public Works Compliance Program,” affiliated with Local No. 340 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).  The court ruled that it was “wholly speculative” that the committee would give the addresses to union organizers.  The court refused to address a privacy argument brought up on appeal.  The County of Sacramento then released the payroll records – with the addresses exposed – to the Public Works Compliance Program.  See this article: San Diego Daily Transcript - November 3, 2006 - “Contractor group unhappy with ruling over home-address access”

There has been one legislative effort to repeal the provision in law allowing Joint Labor-Management Committees to obtain the addresses of construction workers from certified payroll records.  On March 29, 2006, the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee voted down Assembly Bill 1927, a bill sponsored by Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) of California and introduced by Assemblyman Chuck DeVore.  ABC of California offered a compelling case in support of the bill, including documents showing how unions were using these addresses to contact workers at their homes.  Also speaking in support of the bill were representatives from the California Chamber of Commerce, the Western Electrical Contractors Association (WECA), the Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction (CFEC), and the California Geotechnical Engineers Association.  Construction unions claimed the bill was a “recipe for condoning and encouraging the theft of a construction worker’s proper salary,” as if this was the prevailing practice before employee addresses were revealed.

Sometimes private organizations or other members of the public obtain employees’ personal information – including names and addresses – as a result of a mistake by the contracting agency or a contractor.  Here is a sample letter for contractors to provide to local governments and general contractors regarding the proper redaction of personal information on certified payroll records:

Dear [Representative of Awarding Body]:

Please note that, per California Labor Code Section 1776(e), any copy of these certified payroll records made available for inspection and furnished upon request to the public or any public agency shall be marked or obliterated to prevent disclosure of an individual’s name, address, and social security number.

Any copy of records made available for inspection by, or furnished to, a joint labor-management committee established pursuant to the federal Labor Management Cooperation Act of 1978 (29 U.S.C. Sec.  175a) shall be marked or obliterated to prevent disclosure of an individual’s name and social security number.

Please respect the privacy rights of our employees by complying with state law and making sure that personal information indicated above is obliterated before showing or providing these payroll records to the public or to any public agency or to joint labor-management committees.

Also, contractors should know that by law they do NOT have to provide certified payroll records directly to private labor compliance programs (such as union-affiliated Labor-Management Committees) that are not officially working for the local government that has awarded the contract.  California Labor Code Section 1776(b)(3) states that “certified copy of all payroll records enumerated in subdivision (a) shall be made available upon request by the public for inspection or for copies thereof.  However, a request by the public shall be made through either the body awarding the contract, the Division of Apprenticeship Standards, or the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.”

Many public works contractors have received authoritative official-looking letters from union-affiliated labor compliance programs that are requesting the company’s certified payroll records.  With companies newly entering the public works arena, personnel in the payroll offices of contractors need to be aware that these organizations are NOT government monitoring and enforcement agencies.

Note: this information shall not be construed as legal services or legal advice.