(a) The Agricultural Employee Relief Fund is hereby created as a special fund in the State Treasury and is continuously appropriated to the Agricultural Labor Relations Board for the purposes specified in subdivision (c). The board shall act as a trustee of all moneys deposited in the fund.
(b) Any monetary relief ordered by the board pursuant to this part to be paid by an employer to an employee shall be collected by the board on behalf of the employee. All monetary relief so collected by the board shall be remitted to the employee for whom the board collected the money.
(c) (1) Notwithstanding Section 1519 of the Code of Civil Procedure, if the board has made a diligent effort to locate an employee on whose behalf the board has collected monetary relief pursuant to this part, and is unable to locate the employee or the lawful representative of the employee for a period of two years after the date the board collected the monetary relief, the board shall deposit those moneys in the fund.
(2) Moneys in the fund shall be used by the board to pay employees the unpaid balance of any monetary relief ordered by the board to be paid by an employer to an employee. Prior to making any payment from the fund, the board first shall make a finding that, in an individual case, the collection of the full amount of the monetary relief ordered is not possible after reasonable efforts have been made to collect the balance from the employer.
(d) As used in this section, “fund” means the Agricultural Employee Relief Fund.
(e) On or before July 1, 2002, the board shall report to the Legislature on the status of the fund.
(Amended by Stats. 2002, Ch. 664, Sec. 160. Effective January 1, 2003.)