Smaller construction projects covered under San Jose labor agreement

San Jose is expanding a labor agreement to smaller public works projects, raising questions about how the city measures worker protections against business interests.

The City Council voted last week 8-3 to approve amendments to San Jose’s Project Labor Agreement (PLA), which applies rules about working conditions and the type of labor that can be used on public works projects. The city made several amendments, but the most important is a reduction in the dollar threshold for projects that will fall under the PLA from $3 million to $1 million, which means it will apply to more projects.

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Councilmember Sylvia Arenas asked Cano if the department would be able to get payments to workers before Christmas. He said no, and that it was hard to give an estimated timeline for when the cases would resolve. Arenas asked Cano about the possibility of enrolling wage theft-affected families in a Christmas giving program. He discouraged this idea, noting that having the city arrange gifts for the affected workers could potentially complicate the case.

“I understand. But those are families that potentially have children,” Arenas said. “If we didn’t have a couple of our paychecks, we would be impacted certainly.”

https://sanjosespotlight.com/san-jose-expands-coverage-of-project-labor-agreement-public-works-working-conditions/