Contractors Complain About New Job Center

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.