Senate Bill No. 426
(By Senators Bowman and McKenzie)
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[Introduced January 30, 2006; referred to the Committee
the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §21-11-13a, relating to
penalties for employment or use of unauthorized workers by
contractors or subcontractors; empowering the commissioner and
board to issue injunctions for violations; and providing for
suspension and permanent revocation of licenses and fines.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by
adding thereto a new section, designated §21-11-13a, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 11. WEST VIRGINIA CONTRACTOR LICENSING ACT.
§21-11-13a. Employment of unauthorized workers; penalties;
suspension of license.
(a) Upon a determination that a contractor, or subcontractor employed, hired, or used by such contractor, is employing,
recruiting, hiring or using an unauthorized worker, or otherwise
violating the provisions of section three, article one-b of this
chapter, the board or commissioner shall issue a cease and desist
order requiring the contractor and subcontractor to immediately
cease all operations in the state. The commissioner or board
issuing the order has the authority to amend or stay the
application of the order pending a hearing on the alleged
violation if the contractor, or subcontractor files a written
application to the commissioner or board demonstrating hardship
and ability to comply with the provisions of article one-b of
this chapter.
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of section five, article one-b
of this chapter, any contractor or subcontractor found to have
employed, hired, recruited or used an unauthorized worker, or
otherwise found to have violated the provisions of section three,
article one-b of this chapter, or a contractor or subcontractor
who has employed, hired, or used a subcontractor which violated
those provisions, shall be subject to the following penalties:
(1) For a first offense, a fine of not less than one hundred
dollars nor more than one thousand dollars;
(2) For a second offense, a fine of not less than one thousand
dollars nor more than two thousand dollars, or suspension of
license for not more than three months, or both;
(3) For a third offense, a fine of not less than two thousand
five hundred dollars nor more than five thousand dollars, and
suspension of his or her contractor's license for six months;
(4) For a fourth or subsequent offense, suspension of his or her
contractor's license for not less than one year, or permanent
revocation of the license. In any case, a contractor violating
the provisions of this section for a fourth time shall not have
his or her license restored until the board determines that
appropriate and sufficient safeguards are in place to ensure
future violations will not occur.
(c) For purposes of this section, a contractor who employs,
hires, or uses a subcontractor is liable and responsible for the
actions of any and all violations of the subcontractor who
employs, hires, recruits or uses an unauthorized worker where the
contractor has knowledge or reasonably should know of the
employment, hiring, or use of an unauthorized worker. A
contractor's purposeful or willful ignorance of the actions and
employee status of a subcontractor's employees and workers is not
a valid defense to violations under this section or section
three, article one-b of this chapter.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
provide penalties including
fines and suspension of license against contractors and
subcontractors which employ or use illegal alien workers or other
unauthorized workers.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring
have been omitted.