Section 4: Program duties
Section 4. The powers and duties of the Massachusetts industrial service program shall include but not be limited to:
(a) assisting, upon the request of a private business, in alleviating, adverse conditions which threaten to cause a large loss of employment, plant closure, or failure by said private business including, but not limited to, site specific problems, loss of markets, out-moded production technologies, poor management, and changes in ownership;
(b) where a large loss of employment, plant closure or business failure is unavoidable, assisting efforts to secure alternative employment and retraining opportunities for displaced workers, including, but not limited to, co-ordinating the delivery of available state and federal resources and services;
(c) assisting, upon the request of local communities affected by major plant closures, employment losses or business failures, in finding new uses for idled plants or facilities and in fostering long term economic vitality, industrial growth and job creation, in such communities;
(d) overseeing an early warning system to identify industries and businesses likely to experience large losses in employment or plant closures by collecting and analyzing information which may include, but not be limited to: products and markets experiencing declining growth rates, companies and industries subject to competition from production in low wage counties, changes in ownership, layoff and employment patterns, payments of unemployment compensation contributions, and state tax payments;
(e) cooperating with all other state, federal, and local agencies, departments, and commissions, as is necessary to carry out its duties and purposes;
(f) implementing the advice and recommendations of the industrial advisory board relative to improving the performance of its duties and purposes;
(g) with the advice of the advisory council created in section seventy-eight of chapter six A, establishing and administering a comprehensive job placement and reemployment training program for employees of hospitals and other health care facilities whose employment has been or is likely to be terminated as a result of the closure or conversion of the employing hospital or health care facility;
(h) promoting employee involvement and ownership projects as described in sections seventeen to twenty-four, inclusive;
(i) entering into agreements or transactions with any federal, state or municipal agency or other institutions;
(j) accepting any and all donations, grants, bequests, and devises, conditional or otherwise, of money, property, service, or other things of value which may be received from the United States or any agency thereof, any governmental agency, any institution, person, firm or corporation, public and private, to be held, used or applied for any or all the purposes specified in this act, in accordance with the terms and conditions of any such grant. Receipt of each such donation or grant shall be detailed in the annual report of the corporation. Such report shall include the identity of the donor or lender, the nature of the transaction and any conditions attaching thereto;
(k) collecting and disseminating to interested individuals, in cooperation with and through any agencies of federal, state and municipal government, information concerning areas of present and projected employment need, programs of skills training and education consistent therewith and any other relevant information;
(l) providing grants-in-aid to educational institutions to encourage and facilitate the formation of comprehensive cooperative relationships with business and industry which secure for such institutions the information, technical assistance and financial support necessary for the development and significant expansion of programs of skills training and education consistent with employment need;
(m) preparing, publishing and distributing, with or without charge as the director may determine, such technical studies, reports, bulletins and other materials as it deems appropriate;
(n) organizing, conducting, sponsoring or cooperating in and assisting the conduct of special institutes, conferences, demonstrations, international education programs for students in kindergarten and at the primary and secondary levels, and studies which increase communications and cooperation among agencies of federal, state, and municipal government, and all interested institutions, persons, firms, or corporations, public or private concerned with business and industry, economic development, public assistance, employment, skills training and education;
(o) establishing a technology extension service program to provide technical information service and technical assistance to existing Massachusetts companies, especially manufacturers, in the following areas: (1) technology investment and modernization; (2) market identification and technology management; (3) materials usage and planning; (4) business management and maximization of the firms productivity; and (5) strategies for work force development and quality. The Bay State Center for Applied Technology located within the program shall conduct outreach to designated industrial sectors to select and encourage companies to seek the assistance of the technology extension service program. Said outreach shall be coordinated with the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center or local development offices.
The technology extension service program shall be partially funded through a fee-for-service program, the cost of which to private-sector firms shall be determined by the following formula: (1) firms in Phase I of said program, a thirty percent share of the total costs; and (2) firms in Phase II of said program, a fifty percent share of the total costs. For the purposes of this clause, the term ''Phase I'' shall mean the first three visits to the technology extension service by a private sector firm and the term ''Phase II'' shall mean the fourth and subsequent visits to the technology extension service by a private sector firm; and
(p) doing any and all things necessary or convenient to carry out the purposes of this chapter, to the extent consistent with law.