Six months after it was introduced, a California bill that would restore construction contractors’ ability to more broadly utilize skilled trades apprentice workers on public projects was stalled in a Senate committee.
No hearings on SB 1065, introduced in February by Democratic state senator Scott Wiener, have yet been held or scheduled by the Committee on Labor, Public Employment, and Retirement but both proponents and opponents are likely girded for action when debate ensues.
A primary sponsor of the legislation, which would let contractors put apprentices to work on a broad range of tasks journeymen engage in, says it would help contractors and apprentices alike. Associated General Contractors (AGC) of California contends freeing up apprentices to contribute and gain experience more fully on job sites helps contractors cope with the byproducts of a growing labor shortage and accelerates the learning curve of workers pursuing their selected trade.
Critics, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) among them, argue the change would jeopardize the safety of apprentices and others on job sites, permit contractors to squeeze more work out of lower-wage workers and undermine the state’s apprenticeship training program.
The bill is a response to court rulings that upheld changes made in 2019 to apprentice work rules by the California Apprenticeship Council (CAC).
AGC was the lead plaintiff in a court case that challenged CAC’s requirement that contractors could only assign apprentices to tasks that involved work processes closely aligned with their approved training program. Prior to the change, contractors exercised more latitude in how they utilized apprentices, interpreting rules to mean apprentices working under a journeyman in their craft could perform any of the tasks that person was engaged in on a job.
The legal challenge to CAC’s rule change ended in 2025 with a state appellate court upholding a lower court ruling in CAC’s favor, sending rebuffed opponents to the state legislature for relief. SB 1065 would restore contractors’ ability to utilize apprentices more widely in their chosen craft and provide for shared power in setting standards; the state department of industrial relations would step in to clarify which crafts or trades qualify for apprentices, taking some authority from the CAC.
AGC frames the bill as a necessary response to the court ruling because apprentices are becoming a vital construction input, providing a much-needed source of labor in a pressured market. In a March online posting AGC of California said contractors and apprentices need more flexibility on work rules and SB 1065 will “restore common sense to a system that got tangled in overreaching regulation. When apprenticeship works the way it was designed to, contractors get skilled workers, workers build lasting careers, and communities, particularly communities that have historically had limited access to the trades, gain reliable pathways to good-paying jobs.”
But those potential benefits could come at the cost of worker safety and even a reduction in apprenticeship program participation, opponents say.
Organized opposition, mainly from unions, surfaced after the bill was introduced. A website put up by California & Nevada State Association of Electrical Workers and Western States Council, www.StopSB1065.com, warns that it jeopardizes apprentice safety, which was better assured under the rules the courts upheld.
Citing a statistic that 400 California construction workers have died in the last four years and claiming, mistakenly perhaps, that the measure would allow workers to “work outside their trained trade, a painting apprentice sent to work on an electrical panel,” the site says the measure will “result in prioritizing profits at the expense of putting apprentices in harm's way doing work they are not trained for.”
More nuanced opposition came from the California State Association of Electrical Workers, part of the IBEW. An April post cautioned that the bill “is a dangerous departure from established law and practice,” putting apprentices “in situations where they lack the necessary training, supervision, and classroom instruction to safely execute assigned tasks, leading to a “predictable result of increased risk of workplace accidents, injuries, and long-term harm to workers who are still in the process of learning their craft.”
It added that throwing apprentices into a work environment that prioritizes sheer utilization runs counter to the imperative that building competency comes through “structured progression and proper supervision,” which could be stripped away and lead to “unnecessary and avoidable risk.”
And it jeopardizes the integrity of the state’s apprenticeship system “which is built on a deliberate and proven framework that integrates on-the-job training and supplemental instruction to ensure apprentices receive the necessary hands-on experience and in-classroom education to safely and competently perform specific tasks within their trade.”
While the bill awaits action, apprenticeship programs in the state continue to expand. In April $18.6 million in grants through the CAC Training Fund were released to support apprenticeship in building and construction trades. Funding will support 160 state-registered programs and efforts to bring in more than 55,000 apprentices across multiple trades.
