§ 40-42-107 — Labor standards - apprenticeship - supervision

Colorado § 40-42-107

• Jurisdiction: Colorado
• Title 40: Utilities
• Art.: Colorado Electric Transmission Authority Act

Text

(1) The
authority shall ensure that, in any construction, expansion, renovation, rebuilding,
reconditioning, or maintenance of facilities undertaken in Colorado pursuant to this
article 42, all labor is performed either by the employees of an electric utility, by
qualified contractors, or by both, and that, except as otherwise provided in
subsection (3) of this section, an electric utility does not use a contractor unless:

(a) The contractor is chosen from a list of qualified contractors prepared and
updated, at least annually, by the department of labor and employment; and

(b) The contractor's employees have access to an apprenticeship program
registered with the United States department of labor's office of apprenticeship or
by a state apprenticeship agency recognized by that office and meeting the
additional criteria specified in subsection (2) of this section; except that this
apprenticeship requirement does not apply to:

(I) The design, planning, or engineering of the facilities;

(II) Management functions to operate the facilities; or

(III) Any work performed in response to a warranty claim.

(2) To qualify pursuant to subsection (1) of this section, an apprenticeship
program must certify to the entity commissioning the work that:

(a) Its curriculum includes requirements for completion of:

(I) At least seven thousand hours of on-the-job training to achieve
journeymen lineman status, with at least six hundred fifty of those hours spent
working on energized power lines at voltages of at least six hundred volts; and

(II) A class in electric transmission and distribution offered by the federal
occupational safety and health administration and comprising content substantially
equivalent to that of the OSHA 10 class offered during calendar year 2021; and

(b) Supervision of apprentices meets the following standards:

(I) Apprentices must work under the supervision of a journeyman lineman at
all times;

(II) The ratio of apprentices to journeyman linemen does not exceed four to
one when working on a transmission line or other equipment that is not energized;
and

(III) The ratio of apprentices to journeyman linemen does not exceed two to
one when working on a transmission line or other equipment that is energized.

(3) The request for proposal for any contract work on facilities subject to this
section must be submitted to the list of qualified contractors described in
subsection (1)(a) of this section for at least sixty days. If none of the contractors on
the list submits a qualifying bid within sixty days, then the entity procuring the work
may solicit bids from contractors who are not on the list but otherwise qualify under
the terms of the request for proposal so long as those terms include compliance
with all applicable laws and regulations related to safety.

(4) Any project for the construction, expansion, or maintenance of facilities
undertaken in Colorado pursuant to this article 42 that is an energy sector public
works project, as defined in section 24-92-303 (5), must comply with the applicable
requirements of the Colorado Energy Sector Public Works Project Craft Labor
Requirements Act, part 3 of article 92 of title 24.

Legislative History

Source: L. 2023: IP(1)(b) amended, (SB 23-051), ch. 37, p. 153, � 39, effective March 23; IP(1) amended, (SB 23-016), ch. 165, p. 748, � 24, effective August 7; (4) added, (SB 23-292), ch. 247, p. 1366, � 11, effective January 1, 2024.