Employment protections: 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 authorizes the Labor Commissioner to enforce certain notice requirements concerning a mass layoff, relocation, or termination of employees, including call center employees. Existing law prohibits 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. Existing law requires a state agency authorized to enter into contracts relating to public benefit programs, as defined, to only contract for services provided by a call center that directly serves applicants for, recipients of, or enrollees in, those public benefit programs with a contractor that certifies in its bid for the contract that the services provided under the contract and any subcontract performed under that contract, to applicants for, recipients of, or enrollees in, those public benefit programs, will be performed solely with workers employed in California, subject to certain exceptions. Existing law imposes a civil penalty, as provided, for knowingly providing false information in that certification. This bill would require each state agency, on and after January 1, 2025, that enters a contract with a private entity specifically for call center work to provide public or customer service for that agency or another state agency to ensure that no later than January 1, 2026, at least 90% of the call center work is conducted in California, except in specified circumstances. This bill would also require each state agency that enters into a contract with a private entity for programs or other services, including no-fee contracts, in which call center work is included but the contract is not specifically for call center work, to prioritize the work being conducted in California. The bill would further require the Department of General Services to establish scoring incentives for those contracts, subject to certain conditions. The bill would create exceptions from these requirements for disasters and overflow work needs, as specified.