Volunteers to ensure prevailing wages are paid on public works projects

About a dozen unpaid volunteers will inspect construction sites to ensure contractors are paying prevailing wages on Clark County's public works projects.

Commissioners approved a one-year pilot program to aid the county's lone full-time compliance officer. State law requires workers to receive the prevailing wage on public works' projects larger than $100,000.

County officials have logged 91 complaints since 2009 about employers not paying the proper wages.

Candidates must apply and will be chosen by experience and qualifications.

Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani said the beefier inspection team will prevent contractors from falsifying wages .

To address contractors' concerns, the county drafted strict guidelines for volunteers, such as forbidding them from engaging in union activities at work sites, Giunchigliani said.

Despite the effort to allay the industry's concerns, there were lingering doubts about whether the volunteers might try to recruit union members at job sites, said Warren Hardy, president of Associated Builders and Contractors.

But one labor leader argued that stepped-up enforcement is needed.

Lou Salazar, business representative for the Plumbers, Pipefitters and Refrigeration Technicians Local 525, said he has encountered building sites where plumbing work was being done but no plumbers were on the payroll.