The purpose of this rule filing is to review the prevailing wage rules and consider amendments to reflect court decisions, integrate administrative policies, streamline current processes, create consistency with the statute, and also consider other housekeeping changes.553.

Prevailing wage rates on public work projects are determined and enforced according to the trade or occupation or “classification” of work actually performed. The purpose of this rulemaking is to write scope of work descriptions for job classifications that have wage rates but no written scope of work description. The department is working with the Prevailing Wage Advisory Committee on the development of scopes. The purpose of this rulemaking is to adopt scope of work descriptions for construction site surveyor, industrial power vacuum, and diver/diver tenders. The changes were adopted 11/18/2008 and became effective on 1/1/2009.521.

The purpose of this rulemaking is to update the filing fees for intents and affidavits. The Legislature increased the filing fees from $25 to $40 during the 2008 Legislative session. The rulemaking will remove the $25 filing fee from the rule. The filing fees for Prevailing Wage intents and affidavits will be removed from the rule. The rules will have a reference to RCW 39.12.070, which clearly states the current fee set by the Legislature. This will prevent the program from having to conduct rulemaking every time a fee change occurs. The changes were adopted 8/19/2008 and became effective on 9/19/2008.513.

During the last decade the prevailing wage program has seen a number of court decisions identify the extent to which prevailing wages are to required to be paid for the work of incorporation and delivery of material on public projects. In particular, the recent Silverstreak case (2007), after 9 years of court action, clarified the delivery and incorporation of fill material via belly dump and end-dump trucks. In addition, a series of other published cases (Heller, Superior Asphalt 1 & 2) provided coverage for the oiling of machinery and the delivery and incorporation of asphalt respectively. In July 1999, one department policy pertaining to the delivery of wet concrete exempts certain this types of delivery and incorporation from prevailing wage coverage. As a result, the coverage of this type of work is treated differently from other delivery and incorporation work. This policy was developed in response to an unpublished court case (Holyrod 1999) and was put in place prior to the rulings of the court on Silverstreak, and Superior Asphalt. It is the department's intention, through the rule process, to clarify the coverage of delivery services and make the coverage of work and payment of wages consistent with the direction from the courts, thereby ensuring that the intent of the statue of providing prevailed wages for workers is maintained and that business do not encounter unanticipated costs due to a lack of understanding on coverage requirements. The changes were adopted 12/2/2008 and became effective on 1/2/2009.504.

Prevailing wage rates on public work projects are determined and enforced according to the trade or occupation or “classification” of work. These classifications are described in the “scopes of work” rules. The Electronic Technician regulation is a pre-existing scope of work rule. Electronic technicians work with low voltage electrical systems. Under the current rule, electronic technicians may pull low voltage wire through metallic conduit that is no longer than 10 feet nor larger than one inch. The purpose of this rulemaking is to allow electronic technicians to pull low voltage wire through any length or width of conduit, with the exception of wire for fire alarm systems. The proposed rule will clear up ambiguities raised by stakeholders. The changes were adopted 9/22/2009 and became effective on 11/1/2009.396.