A while ago we brought the Important Notices section of the DIR website to your attention. Well ladies and gentlemen, we wanted to revisit this section of the website in more detail and explain exactly why these important notices are so important to prevailing wage contractors when bidding public works projects. This issue was recently brought to our attention by one of our contracting clients, and we thought it was important enough that we needed to share it with the rest of the prevailing wage community.
In the last couple of years, the Important Notices section has received quite a bit of attention from the DLSR. There have been changes made to predetermined increases, scopes of work, and much more. The problem is, however, that the contracting community seems to have been unaware of these changes. Here are some suggestions that we have for you to make sure you remain updated on the Important Notices section.
1. If you’re a prevailing wage contractor, sign up for the DLSR’s email subscription service regarding Important Notices! This email service will send notices to the designated email indicating that a new Important Notice is available. It is important to review these notices when they are emailed to you to ensure that you are maintaining compliance with all the updates for your trade. You can find the link here: http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlsr/NoticeIndex.htm.
2. If you’re doing prevailing wage work in California, review the Important Notices that are indexed under each superseded wage decision Step 6 on the DIR website OR ELSE contact the DLSR and request the important notices for a specific trade for a specific wage decision. This should be done for each wage decision you are currently subject to!
For example, if you are working in the Plumber trade in Riverside County and you are subject to the 2011-1 decision, you would simply ask for all the important notices relevant to Plumbers in Riverside County under 2011-1. Make sure that you get the publication date as that is the only way that you will be able to pull up the Important Notice.
Once you have spoken to the DLSR and received the publication date for the important notice, you can go to the Important Notice index for the appropriate time period and find the specific Important Notice.
For example, although the Important Notice may affect the 2010-1, 2010-2, 2011-1 & 2011-2 decision, the notice may have been published in October 2011. If you were to look under the 2011-1 index, the Important Notices only go through August 2011. So how are you supposed to find the Important Notice that affects your wage decision? Since the publication date was in October 2011, you must look to the Important Notice index that coincides with the publication date. This means that the Important Notice that was published in October 2011 would be indexed under the 2011-2 index.
Confusing? Yes! That’s why we are here- to help you navigate the murky waters that are the Prevailing Wage regulations in the state of California.