Opinion ID: 4299175
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Other purposes similar to those specified

Text: in paragraphs (1) to (8), inclusive. Id. § 1773.1(a) (2004). Prior to 2004, employers could credit contributions only to numbers (1) through (6) above. Id. § 1773.1(a) (2003). The 2004 version expanded the credit to include contributions to IAFs—number (8)—subject to approval under a CBA. The added IAF wage-credit option sparked controversy when employers began interpreting subsection (9) as allowing them to wage-credit contributions to IAFs without employee consent, so long as the recipient IAFs were similar to, but not covered by, a CBA, as set forth in subsection (8). To close this loophole, in 2016 the state legislature amended § 1773.1 with SB 954—the law at issue here. SB 954 clarifies that subsection (9) allows wage crediting only for “other purposes similar to those specified in paragraphs (6) to (8), inclusive, if the payments are made pursuant to a [CBA] to which the employer is obligated.” Id. § 1773.1(a)(9) (2017) (emphasis added). Thus, since SB 954 went into effect on January 1, 2017, it has been clear that employers may reduce payments to employees to support 10 INTERPIPE CONTRACTING V. BECERRA their contributions to IAFs only if doing so is approved by their employees through a CBA. Interpipe is a plumbing and pipeline contractor that favors “open shop” employment arrangements and opposes project labor agreements (“PLAs”) on public works projects. “Open shop” is labor vernacular for projects involving an employer that has no formal contracts with a labor union, and where both unionized and non-unionized labor is permitted. Del Turco v. Speedwell Design, 623 F. Supp. 2d 319, 326 (E.D.N.Y. 2009); Ray Angelini, Inc. v. City of Philadelphia, 984 F. Supp. 873, 875 (E.D. Pa. 1997). A PLA, by contrast, is a type of collective bargaining relationship involving multiple employers and unions that agree to abide by a uniform labor agreement in their bids on public works projects. Bldg. & Constr. Trades Dep’t, AFLCIO v. Allbaugh, 295 F.3d 28, 30 (D.C. Cir. 2002). Before SB 954 took effect, Interpipe took a wage credit for its contributions to ABC-CCC—an IAF that opposes PLAs and supports open shop arrangements. Since SB 954 went into effect, Interpipe has ceased making payments to ABC-CCC.