Has The CSLB Dropped The Ball By Not Beefing Up Enforcement?

Originally Posted by fortscott

Competing against the hordes of unlicensed hacks in advertising is OUT OF
CONTROL.
The CSLB has NO idea how to deal with the problem due to the sheer number of
operators in every California city. Day labor fills Home Depot parking lots,
specialized posters create professional ads for these thieves and fill
electronic and print media with illegal postings.

ENOUGH! We intend to put CSLB on notice. Tackle this problem NOW, before it
becomes irreversible and our license is worth nothing. If we go out of
business, they will.

For more info about the UCA and what we are doing, visit our website:
gouca.org

Link to the UCA video:
gouca.org/uncon/ucv


You can help move our agenda forward by sending this e-mail to as many
contractors as you can.
You can become a member of the UCA for $55.00 a year. We are non profit, all
dues collected keep the fight going, and fund a suit against publishers that
allow illegal advertising.
Send to:

UCA
P.O.Box 13416
Sacramento, Ca. 95813

(916) 749-5333
e-mail uca@gouca.org

Originally Posted by BKFranks

Nothing is going to change in CA. The state legislature has been run by the left for decades. They're too busy trying to give drivers licenses to illegal aliens and now trying to drive businesses and jobs out of the state by passing that illegal $10 Billion tax increase.

Non licensed contractors and illegals are rampant and there's no enforcement. There's hundreds of illegals lined up in front of HD everyday and the police can't even arrest them. In places like LA county they have special order 40 which prohibits the police from arresting known illegal alien gang members even if the police know they've been deported before. It's a joke!

The only enforcement is maybe once a year they pull one of those undercover stings and arrest a few people. That's it. Most of the time they get jobs by word of mouth or referrals so the people they're getting work from is someone who knows someone. Many contractors don't care cause they just want the cheapest price. I've seen a bunch of contractors that are originally from south of the border and were either given amnesty back in the 80's, or have become citizens after being here from many years and they are sympathetic to illegals so they hire them.

Before anyone starts thinking I'm some racist I'll let you all know that I am married to an immigrant from Mexico who came here legally and believe me the process of becoming a citizen takes years. My wife thinks it's a total slap in the face that she did it the right way and many others didn't and the government does practically nothing about it. There's all these freebies just handed to illegals and my wife got nothing. She worked hard to learn English on her own. She speaks French, English, and Spanish. She works for a fortune 500 company as a financial analyst and works for two gym's as a personal trainer and teaches aerobics classes. She's also building her own personal clientele so that she can eventual work solely for herself doing only that. Her and I alsorun a few days a week and run marathons together.

Craigslist is post after post of unlicensed people offering services. I took a look at LA County today and it's just unbelievable that people can advertise for work and even get hired by a home owner. I'm starting to think CA is the bizarro world where everything is the opposite. Up is down and left is right, and wrong is right. I'm about a inch away of moving out of this state.

Originally Posted by fortscott

Contractors Complain About New Job Center
By Matea Gold
December 20, 1997 in print edition B-3
A newly opened job center in Hollywood where day laborers wait for work is under fire from local contractors, who complain that the center is unfairly promoting the services of unlicensed workers.

Citing a flier for the center that advertises roofers, painters and plumbers, contractors complained that the city-funded center gives an advantage to the laborers, most of whom are not licensed by the state.

“We’re not against these people working, but we definitely think the contractors are being nailed by this,” said Andy Stewart, who owns a plumbing and heating company near the center. “We pay every single little fee, and it’s hard for us to compete when they don’t have to comply with anything.”

However, city building and safety officials said that providing a place for unlicensed workers to wait for employers does not violate city codes.

Homeowners can hire anyone to work on their property as long as they have the proper permits, said Luke Zamperini, an inspector with the city’s Department of Building and Safety.

“You can hire the guy next door and supervise his work if you want,” Zamperini said. “However, we do recommend that homeowners hire reputable, licensed contractors.”

Located on a parking lot behind a Sears, the Virginia Avenue center opened in October as a place for day laborers to wait for work. It is the first city-funded labor exchange to open in seven years.

Center coordinators, who withdrew the fliers after contractors complained, said people realize that they are employing unskilled laborers, not professional plumbers and carpenters.

“I think the flier was misunderstood,” said Nancy Cervantes, an aide to Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who helped set up the site. “These are low-skilled workers helping on jobs. They are not competing with licensed contractors. No one there holds himself out as someone who can complete a job on his own.”

In response to contractors’ concerns, coordinators will provide information at the center about when employers need to hire licensed workers, worker’s compensation and other labor issues.

But the state contractor’s license board, alerted by the complaints, has launched an investigation and last week sent an inspector to the center.

“If it’s a job labor center acting truly in that capacity, then we don’t have a problem with it,” said Dennis Bishop, supervising deputy of the board’s enforcement unit. “But if they’re out there contracting jobs on their own, then that would be a problem.”

Bishop said that if the center is violating state law, it could be cited and fined up to $500.

When it opened, the workers and local businesses praised the project as an example of successful collaboration between day workers and domestic workers.

Dozens of men who had crowded the corners along Santa Monica Boulevard looking for work now gather at the center before dawn. Domestic workers have organized a co-op based at the center to help them get jobs. Organizers also plan job skills and English classes.

The city is spending about $100,000 a year for the program, which includes salaries of three coordinators.

Many workers said they are now able to protect themselves against employer abuses with the help of information about state labor law available at the center.

But the contractors’ concerns have put a snag in the center’s progress, illustrating the difficulties in trying to find a way to organize the massive, mostly immigrant labor pool in Southern California.

Even if the work done by laborers is legal, contractors said they worry that unlicensed workers hired at the center do not have the skills necessary to complete a job.

Cervantes said it is clear that the center is not an employment agency with responsibility for the workers, but simply a safe place where people can hire laborers.

“The center is a solution, not a problem,” she said.