California’s Prevailing Wage Law (Lab. Code 1720(a)(1)) defines a “public work” as including construction and installation. This decision holds that while the statute does not expressly say so, the prior common meaning of a public work–that is a physical installation on real property–provides a context for the statutory definition, confining its broad undefined terms, construction and installation, to tasks performed in building a physical installation on real property. Here, plaintiff worked for a public contractor installing computer and communications equipment on railroad cars used by MetroLink. The decision holds that because plaintiff’s labor was not in connection with a fixed installation on real property, it was not part of a public work and so not subject to the prevailing wage law. And, that labor did not become subject to the prevailing wage law merely because the installed communications equipment was part of a larger communications network that included fixed installations on real property such as communications towers.