Court rules for truckers in prevailing wage case

Thursday, Feb. 14, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A decision by the Nevada Supreme Court will have wide implications regarding how contractors pay workers on government jobs.

The court ruled Wednesday that truck drivers hauling material from a construction site were entitled to prevailing wages.

"This is a great decision for the workers of the state," said state Labor Commissioner Terry Johnson.

The unanimous decision upheld Johnson's ruling directing Granite Construction Co. to pay the prevailing wage to truck drivers who hauled aggregate from pits to three highway building projects.

According to Nevada law, a private company that wins a contract for a public works project must pay the prevailing wage for that area. The law is aimed at preventing the contractor from bringing in cheap labor from outside the area.

Brian Hutchins, chief deputy attorney general for the state Transportation Department, said this could result in higher prices for road building. But he said it "levels the playing field."

He said some contractors would include prevailing wage in their bids, and others would not.

In this case, truck drivers testified they received $15 an hour on some projects but $29.50 where the prevailing wage rule was in effect.

The state Transportation Department withheld $225,000 from Granite on these three projects to pay the workers if the ruling was upheld.

Johnson said the decision was "timely" because his agency is writing regulations on how workers must be paid on site and off site.

In Southern Nevada Johnson said some contractors have their workers doing major assembly work off site, and they weren't being paid the prevailing wage.

In this case, Johnson said Granite sought the decision. He said the company did not try to "circumvent the law."

Unions representing the Teamsters and the Operating Engineers had filed friend of the court briefs supporting Johnson. The Associated General Contractors submitted a brief opposing the decision.

Granite won three highway construction contracts from the state Transportation Department in 1997 and 1998 in Northern Nevada. The state allowed the company to use pits that contained raw material that Granite processed to produce aggregate.

The aggregate was hauled anywhere from 5 to 56 miles to the construction project. Although Granite paid the prevailing wage to its employees at the pits, it did not pay the wage to truck drivers who were employees of another company. The contractor maintained that the wage had to be paid only to those at the actual construction site.

The court said Nevada's prevailing wage law is ambiguous. It was modeled after the 1935 federal Little Davis-Bacon Act, but with a major difference, said the court.

The federal law, as interpreted by the courts, referred specifically to the construction location, though the Supreme Court said the Nevada law was broader.

It said the Legislature did not intend the law to be as restrictive as federal legislation.

The court said, "Truck drivers transporting materials from one part of the construction site to another, where the materials were immediately incorporated into the project, are entitled to receive prevailing wages."

It reversed the decision of District Judge Mike Griffin, who granted a petition for judicial review of the Johnson decision. The court told Griffin to rule that the truck drivers in this case were entitled to receive prevailing wages.