Employment protections: mass layoff, relocation, or termination of employees: call centers.

Existing law generally regulates the wages, hours, and working conditions of people employed in any occupation. Existing law creates the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, the head of which is the Labor Commissioner. Existing law prohibits an employer from ordering a mass layoff, relocation, or termination, as defined, at a covered establishment, as defined, without giving a written notice of the order to certain parties and entities, including the employees, the Employment Development Department, and specified local officials. Existing federal law, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014, provides for workforce investment activities, including activities in which states may participate. Existing law requires the local chief elected officials in a local workforce development area to form, pursuant to specified guidelines, a local workforce investment board to plan and oversee the workforce investment system, and further requires the Governor to periodically certify one local board for each local area in the state. Existing law authorizes the Labor Commissioner, in any investigation or proceeding under provisions governing the relocation, termination, or mass layoff of employees, to examine the books and records of an employer. This bill would authorize the Labor Commissioner to enforce certain notice requirements concerning a mass layoff, relocation, or termination of employees, including call center employees. The bill would grant the Labor Commissioner the authority to investigate an alleged violation, order appropriate temporary relief to mitigate a violation pending completion of a full investigation or hearing, and issue a citation in accordance with certain procedures. This bill would prohibit a call center employer from ordering a relocation of its call center, or one or more of its facilities or operating units within a call center, unless notice of the relocation is provided to the affected employees and the Employment Development Department, local workforce investment board, and the chief elected official of each city and county government within which the termination, relocation, or mass layoff occurs, as specified. The bill would require the Employment Development Department to compile and publish semiannually, on its internet website, a list of call center employers that provided notice, as prescribed. The bill would require the Employment Development Department and local workforce development boards to provide workforce services to call center employers and their call center employees who are laid off as a result of the relocation of a call center. By imposing new duties on local government officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would establish remedies for a call center employer's failure to provide notice regarding a relocation of its call center facilities and would make a call center employer who appears on the department's list, or who should appear on the list but failed to provide notice, ineligible to be awarded or have renewed state grants or state-guaranteed loans for 5 years, as specified. The bill would also make that call center employer ineligible to claim a tax credit for 5 taxable years beginning on and after the date that the list is published. The bill would authorize an appropriate agency, as defined, to waive ineligibility for specified reasons. This bill would preclude the withholding or denial of payments, compensation, or benefits under any other state law to workers based upon these provisions, as specified. The bill would authorize the Labor Commissioner and the Employment Development Department to adopt regulations as necessary to implement these provisions. 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 the statutory provisions noted above.