Public employment: local public transit agencies: autonomous transit vehicle technology.

Existing law creates various transit districts and prescribes requirements applicable to their labor relations, including those that address the recognition and certification of exclusive employee representatives, unit determinations, and procedures for meeting and conferring on matter subject to collective bargaining. This bill would require a public transit employer to provide written notice to the exclusive employee representative of the workforce affected by autonomous transit vehicle technology of its determination to begin, or its substantive progress toward initiating, any procurement process or a plan to acquire or deploy any autonomous transit vehicle technology for public transit services that would eliminate job functions or jobs of the workforce to which the autonomous transit vehicle technology applies not less than 12 months before commencing the process, plan, or deployment. The bill would require a public transit employer, upon a written request of the exclusive employee representative, to provide specified information to the exclusive employee representative, including the potential gaps in skills that may result from the new service. The bill would require the public transit employer, following the written request for information by the exclusive employee representative, and within 30 days of receiving the specified information, to commence collective bargaining on specified subjects, including creating plans to train and prepare the affected workforce to fill new positions created by the autonomous transit vehicle technology.