I heard that if you don't have the certification and you are working...it can be deemed illegal in CA. Is this true?
Although the DAS participated in writing the law... They claim is has no enforcement at this time,
but the law clearly states that there needs to be. So they are technically in violation of their own law!
Currently, the burden of becoming and maintaining a "Certified" status is solely on the employee - and for the most part so is any penalty. If caught working without certification they can be barred from taking the test for five years. (Which is the term of an apprenticship program) So in a round about way, their job experiance does not count if caught, nor would it count if they wanted to become certified down the line without getting caught. (Threat of perjury on the application... Blah, blah, blah.)
There is one area of the industry where certification, and the supervision rules reguading apprentices is being enforced - Prevailing wage contracts. And really only as a rule to disqualify bidders of those type of contracts. I think another group of people involved in the wring of this law is enforcing that themselves. Violations of the supervision rules can also barr an employer from having apprenticeship labor - but not currenlty barr them from ET labor. (As far as I know - someone will correct me if I'm wrong.) But is also a requirement of a law signed at the same time as this one that there be a rquirement for "Apprenticeship labor" of prevailing wage contracts. (So ET's don't count...)
But as an employer there is no legal penalty for hiring Joe-US-citizen-white-guy-speaks-english-and-eats-apple-pie. (Not to be confused with any other sort of
illegal labor) However, it is a huge disservice to said "Joe" in the fact that none of his work experiance will count toward his growing career down the line. And if caught, will need to supervised on a "one to one basis" and go to school for five years - even if he has 20 years in the trade... (Like say if he missed the boat along with many thousands of other people.) Technically he is
"Illegal Labor" until he has a little
blue card. But truthfully, that is not stopping anyone right now.