AB 1669: Displaced employees: service contracts: collection and transportation of solid waste.

Existing law requires a local government agency letting a public transit service contract out to bid to give a bidding preference for contractors and subcontractors who agree to retain for a specified period certain employees who were employed to perform essentially the same services by the previous contractor or subcontractor. Such a contractor or subcontractor is required to offer employment to those employees, except for reasonable and substantiated cause. Existing law requires a successor contractor or subcontractor that determines that fewer employees are needed than under the prior contract to retain qualified employees by seniority within the job classification. The existing contractor is required to provide prescribed information regarding employment under the existing service contract to the awarding authority, any entity that the awarding authority identifies as a bona fide bidder, and the successor contractor. Existing law authorizes an employee who was not offered employment or who has been discharged in violation of existing law, or his or her agent, to bring an action against the successor contractor or subcontractor in any superior court having jurisdiction over the successor contractor or subcontractor. Existing law authorizes an awarding authority to terminate a service contract under prescribed circumstances.

This bill would expand the application of these provisions to exclusive contracts for the collection and transportation of solid waste. The bill would require the information provided to a bona fide bidder to be made available in writing at least 30 days before bids for the service contract are due. The bill would establish certain provisions applicable only to service contracts for the collection and transportation of solid waste, including limits on the requirement to retain employees and specified requirements for notice and opportunity to cure in the context of civil action or termination. The bill would not apply to contracts awarded before January 1, 2017, or to contracts for which the bid process has been completed before January 1, 2017. By requiring local agencies to give a bidding preference under these provisions to those contractors and subcontractors for the collection and transportation of solid waste, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.