Kaanaana

*784 These are appeals from a judgment and a postjudgment attorney fee order in a class action alleging Labor Code violations. The case presents two principal issues. The first is whether plaintiffs should have been paid the prevailing wage applicable to workers employed on public works. The second is the applicable remedy when an employer violates statutory and regulatory provisions requiring employers to provide workers with a duty-free 30-minute meal period, by shortening the meal period by three to five minutes. On the second issue, there is no dispute that plaintiffs are entitled to the statutory remedy under Labor Code section 226.7 - an additional hour of pay at their regular rate. 1 But plaintiffs contend they are also entitled to payment of the minimum wage for the entire 30-minute meal period, while defendants contend they are entitled to nothing more than the section 226.7 remedy.

The trial court found (1) the prevailing wage law did not apply to plaintiffs; and (2) the section 226.7 remedy was the exclusive remedy for the shortened meal period. We disagree with both conclusions and hold:

First, the prevailing wage law applies; under well-established principles of…

I concur with the majority opinion on all points except the application of the prevailing wage to the work performed by plaintiffs. In my view, the statutory provisions requiring payment of prevailing wage rates do not apply because plaintiffs are not engaged in "public works" within the meaning of the prevailing wage law ( Lab. Code, §§ 1720 - 1861 ).

I agree with the majority that "[w]ork done for irrigation, utility, reclamation, and improvement districts, and other districts of this type" is not confined to "construction work." As the majority correctly points out, the prevailing wage law originally protected construction workers, and has been expanded over the years "to benefit and protect employees on public works projects." ( Lusardi Construction Co. v. Aubry (1992) 1 Cal.4th 976 , 987, 4 Cal.Rptr.2d 837 , 824 P.2d 643 .)

But as I see it, throughout the various expansions of the term "public works" in the section 1720 definition, the term has in every case involved work on "public works projects" that in some way concerns infrastructure - the physical facilities that constitute "public works projects" or public improvements. 2 I have never seen the term applied to…