Page 156 - An Indispensible Resource for Being a Credible Activist

years. A revision of the Hawaii Revised Statutes authorizes the State Governor to suspend
the prevailing wage on public projects during a national emergency declared by the
President or Congress or during an emergency declared by the Governor. In addition, con-
tractors who violate the prevailing wage on public contracts in the State by falsifying records
or delaying or interfering with an investigation shall be suspended for a period of three
years. New Jersey now requires that the prevailing-wage rate be paid to workers employed
in the performance of any construction contract, including contracts for millwork fabrica-
tion under the authority of financial assistance by the State. New Jersey also redefined the
term “construction of a public utility” to mean the construction, reconstruction, installation,
demolition, restoration, or alteration of facilities of the public utility. The term shall not be
construed to include operational work such as flagging, plowing snow, managing vegetation
in and around utility rights-of-way, marking out boundaries on roads, performing janitorial
services, surveying for landscaping leaks, performing meter work, and making miscella-
neous repairs. New York amended State labor law and general municipal law in order to pro-
vide additional guarantees of payment of prevailing wages to workers of the State, despite
misdemeanor violations committed by their employers. New York also amended its law so
that employers who owe back wages on State government contracts are now guilty of mis-
demeanors or various classes of felonies, depending upon the total amount of back wages
owed. Rhode Island now requires general contractors and subcontractors who perform work
on any State public-works contract worth $1,000,000 or more to employ apprentices for the
performance of the contract, while complying with the apprentice-to-journeyman ratio
approved by the Apprenticeship Council of the State Department of Labor and Training.
Time off. Members of the Civil Air Patrol in Colorado are now permitted to take a leave
of absence, during the period of a mission, for up to 15 days annually without loss of pay
or other benefits. Persons in Connecticut shall be excused from jury service if, during the
preceding 3 years, they appeared in court for jury service and weren’t excused from such
service. Such persons, however, may request to be summoned for jury service. The District
of Columbia established various requirements for employers who employ various numbers
of employees to provide a certain amount of leave time for certain amounts of hours worked.
Employers in Florida are now permitted to grant an employee up to three working days of
leave during a 12-month period if the employee or a family or household member of the
employee is the victim of domestic violence or sexual abuse. Elected or appointed trustees
of any fire protection district in Illinois are now entitled to absent themselves from work on
the days and times of meetings of the board of trustees for the duration of the meeting and
during any time necessary for traveling to and from the meeting. Iowa employers shall not
discharge or take or fail to take action regarding an employee’s promotion or proposed pro-
motion, or penalize the employee in another manner, due to the service of the employee as
a witness in a criminal proceeding or as a plaintiff, defendant, or witness in a civil proceed-
ing. Employees in Nebraska acting as volunteer emergency responders shall make a rea-
sonable effort to notify their employers that they may be absent from, or report late to, their
place of employment. Employers in the State shall neither terminate nor take any other dis-
ciplinary action against any employee who is a voluntary emergency responder if such
employee is absent or reports late to work because of responding to an emergency in his or
her status as a voluntary emergency responder. Most New Jersey State government employ-

CHAPTER 11 • Different Laws in Different States 139