Bill to allow unpaid volunteer work expected to pass
June 18, 2004 By CAROL BENFELL Legislation that would once again allow unpaid volunteers to work on environmental restoration projects could be in place as early as July, in time to revive local projects shut down earlier this year. Restoration projects have typically used dozens of volunteers to help stretch dollars and expand projects. But the state agency in charge of labor issues determined last year that all workers involved with a project using city or state funding must be paid prevailing wages. A state measure to change that will receive urgency status in the state Senate during the coming week and should be on the governor's desk before legislators' recess on July 3, said the bill's author, Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley. Hancock said Thursday she was "very hopeful" the measure would become law in time to save projects slated for this summer, including enhancement of salmon habitat along three miles of Green Valley Creek near Forestville. "The legislation has already received strong support --
it passed 77 to 0 in the Assembly -- and I don't see any reason
for that to change," Hancock said. The Schwarzenegger administration
has indicated its support, she said. Also on Thursday, Sen. Wes Chesbro, D-Arcata and Assemblyman Joe Nation D-San Rafael, released a legal opinion criticizing the state Department of Industrial Relations' for requiring volunteers be paid. The 11-page legal analysis by the state Legislative Counsel said the department concentrated on a technicality instead of looking at the broader context of the laws about prevailing wages and public works. "The language of the statute should not be given a literal meaning if doing so would result in absurd consequences which the Legislature did not intend," wrote Legislative Counsel Diane Boyer-Vine. The legislative counsel's office acts as an attorney for legislators. Absurd consequences are exactly what is happening, Nation said. "A volunteer is a volunteer. A volunteer is not an employee," he said. At least a dozen projects in Sonoma County and hundreds statewide have been put on hold because of the requirement to pay wages, environmental groups have said. Nation and Chesbro said they sent a copy of the legal opinion to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and asked him to immediately issue an executive order reversing the Department of Industrial Relations' ruling. But the governor is unlikely to do that, said Rick Rice, assistant secretary for the Department of Labor and Workforce Development Agency, which oversees the Department of Industrial Relations. "We looked at whether we could have an administrative change several months ago, and pretty much everybody who examined the issue advanced the need for a legislative fix," Rice said. "It appears that Joe Nation and Wesley Chesbro are out of step with the rest of the Legislature when it comes to this issue." The labor department supports Hancock's bill, AB 2690, Rice said. Labor and environmental groups are also supporting her measure, Hancock said. |
