(a) (1) If an awarding authority notifies a contractor that the service contract between the awarding authority and the contractor has been terminated or will be terminated, the awarding authority shall indicate in that notification whether a successor service contract has been or will be awarded in its place and, if so, shall identify the name and address of the successor contractor. The terminated contractor shall, within three working days after receiving that notification, provide to the successor contractor identified by the awarding authority, the name, date of hire, and job classification of each employee employed at the site or sites covered by the terminated service contract at the time of the contract termination.

(2) If the terminated contractor has not learned the identity of the successor contractor, if any, the terminated contractor shall provide that information to the awarding authority, which shall be responsible for providing that information to the successor contractor as soon as that contractor has been selected.

(3) The requirements of this section shall be equally applicable to all subcontractors of a terminated contractor.

(b) (1) A successor contractor or successor subcontractor shall retain, for a 60-day transition employment period, employees who have been employed by the terminated contractor or its subcontractors, if any, for the preceding four months or longer at the site or sites covered by the successor service contract unless the successor contractor or successor subcontractor has reasonable and substantiated cause not to hire a particular employee based on that employee’s performance or conduct while working under the terminated contract. This requirement shall be stated by awarding authorities in all initial bid packages that are governed by this chapter.

(2) The successor contractor or successor subcontractor shall make a written offer of employment to each employee, as required by this section, in the employee’s primary language or another language in which the employee is literate. That offer shall state the time within which the employee must accept that offer, but in no case may that time be less than 10 days. Nothing in this section requires the successor contractor or successor subcontractor to pay the same wages or offer the same benefits as were provided by the prior contractor or prior subcontractor.

(3) If at any time the successor contractor or successor subcontractor determines that fewer employees are needed to perform services under the successor service contract or successor subcontract than were required by the terminated contractor under the terminated contract or terminated subcontract, the successor contractor or successor subcontractor shall retain employees by seniority within the job classification.

(c) The successor contractor or successor subcontractor, upon commencing service under the successor service contract, shall provide a list of its employees and a list of employees of its subcontractors providing services at the site or sites covered under that contract to the awarding authority. These lists shall indicate which of these employees were employed at the site or sites by the terminated contractor or terminated subcontractor. The successor contractor or successor subcontractor shall also provide a list of any of the terminated contractor’s employees who were not retained either by the successor contractor or successor subcontractor, stating the reason these employees were not retained.

(d) During the 60-day transition employment period, the successor contractor or successor subcontractor shall maintain a preferential hiring list of eligible covered employees not retained by the successor contractor or successor subcontractor from which the successor contractor or successor subcontractor shall hire additional employees until such time as all of the terminated contractor’s or terminated subcontractor’s employees have been offered employment with the successor contractor or successor subcontractor.

(e) During the initial 60-day transition employment period, the successor contractor or successor subcontractor shall not discharge without cause an employee retained pursuant to this chapter. Cause shall be based only on the performance or conduct of the particular employee.

(f) At the end of the 60-day transition employment period, a successor contractor or successor subcontractor shall provide a written performance evaluation to each employee retained pursuant to this chapter. If the employee’s performance during that 60-day period is satisfactory, the successor contractor or successor subcontractor shall offer the employee continued employment. Any employment after the 60-day transition employment period shall be at-will employment under which the employee may be terminated without cause.

(Added by Stats. 2001, Ch. 795, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2002.)