SENATE DOCKET, NO. 156        FILED ON: 1/14/2015

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 959

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

Sonia Chang-Diaz

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act relative to economic stability for displaced service workers.

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PETITION OF:

SENATE DOCKET, NO. 156        FILED ON: 1/14/2015

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 959

[SIMILAR MATTER FILED IN PREVIOUS SESSION
SEE SENATE, NO. 847 OF 2013-2014.]

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Eighty-Ninth General Court
(2015-2016)

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An Act relative to economic stability for displaced service workers.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1.  Section 150 of chapter 149, as appearing in the 2012 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the word “159C”, in line 21, the following word:- “, 189”.

SECTION 2.  Chapter 149 is hereby further amended by inserting after section 188 the following sections:-

Section 188 ½ Definitions.

(a)  As used in this section, the following words, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, shall have the following meanings:-

(A)“Awarding authority” means any person that awards or otherwise contracts for property or non professional airport services performed within the Commonwealth including contracted janitorial, security, maintenance and aviation services.

(B)“Successor Contractor” means any person or entity that employs, or that will employ by the acquisition of a contract for service covered by this section, 10 or more individuals engaged in property or aviation services, and who assumes a service contract where essentially the same services were previously performed by another contractor in the same location within the previous 30 days.

(C)“Predecessor Contractor” means any person or entity that performs a contract for property or aviation services prior to the commencement of the successor contractor. 

(D)“Service Employee” means any employee performing services including but not limited to janitorial, maintenance, aviation  and security services who works non-seasonally for at least 8 hours per week.  This does not include a person who is a managerial, supervisory, or confidential employee, including those employees who would be so defined under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

(E) “Service Contract” means any contract that has the principal purpose of providing janitorial, maintenance, security, aviation or other services through the use of service employees.

(b) Where an awarding authority uses a service contract for the purpose defined in Section 188 1/2(a), subsection (E), a successor contractor shall retain, for a minimum 90-day transition period, service employees who have been employed by a predecessor contractor for the preceding four months or longer. 

The successor contractor shall make a written offer of employment to each employee not less than 10 days prior to the commencement of service; each service employee, as defined in Section D of subsection a of SECTION 2, shall be entitled to, at minimum, the wages he or she had been offered by the Predecessor Contractor, as defined in Section C of subsection a of SECTION 2, during the 90-day transition period.

The employee must answer the offer not more than 10 days from the date the offer is made;

If the full complement of the predecessor’s employees is not retained by the successor because the successor requires fewer employees to perform the service contract, the remaining employees of the predecessor contractor will be placed on a preferential hiring list and will have the right of first refusal for any new open position during the transition period. 

The employer will have the right to discharge the employee during the transition period for cause, which shall be based on work performance or conduct, but in no case will the discharge be arbitrary or capricious.  

(c) The awarding authority shall have the obligation, in accordance with the requirements above, to notify a predecessor contractor within 3 days of the granting of a new award and awardee.  Predecessor contractor will have the obligation to supply successor contractor and awarding authority with the employee names and corresponding dates of hire and job classification. Upon commencement of service, the successor contractor shall provide to the awarding authority a list of all employees providing service at the site or sites pertaining to the new contract for service with the awarding authority, indicating which employees were employed by the predecessor and which were not.      

Failures or omissions in contravention of subsection 188 1/2(c) will result in a fine to either awarding authority, predecessor contractor, or both of $500.00 per employee prejudiced, to be paid to the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance.