Summary of Bill:

Notice, employment, and labor peace agreement requirements are established. These requirements apply to the termination or nonrenewal of certain service contracts by certain awarding authorities.

The term "awarding authority" is defined as any person, including the municipality or a contractor, who awards a service contract at an airport in a county with a population of 450,000 or more. The term "contractor" is defined as a person who enters into a service contract with an awarding authority (and their subcontractors) who employ 10 or more persons. The term "service contract" means a contract to perform food and beverage, retail, security, or janitorial services at an airport.

Notice Requirements.

The contractor and awarding authority are required to:

give advance notice to a contractor and the exclusive bargaining representative of any of the contractor's employees of the termination or nonrenewal of the service contract as soon as reasonably practicable after the awarding authority knows or decides it will be terminated or not renewed; and
provide the contractor and the exclusive bargaining representative with the name, address, and telephone number of the successor contractor, if known.

The terminated contractor is required to:

provide the successor contractor with the name, date of hire, and classification of each of the terminated contractor's employees at sites covered by the service contract not later than three days after receipt of the notice;
provide the successor contractor with updated information on the termination date; and
provide the information to the awarding authority not later than three days after receipt of the notice if the awarding authority fails to notify the terminated contractor of the successor contractor's identity.

Employment Requirements.

The successor contractor is required to:

retain certain employees employed by the terminated contractor during the six-month period preceding the termination or nonrenewal of the service contract;
offer employment to employees employed by the terminated contractor during the six‑month period preceding the commencement of the successor contractor's operations and who are engaged in operations of the terminated contractor that have not ceased;
hand-deliver a written offer of employment to employees who are entitled to retention or employment in a specified form and in their native language or another language in which they are fluent;
retain these employees for at least 90 days and, during the 90-day period, not discharge these employees without just cause; and
offer continued employment to these employees if their performance during the 90-day period is satisfactory.

The successor contractor is also required, if fewer employees are required by the successor contractor than the terminated contractor, to retain employees by seniority within job classifications. The successor contractor is not required to retain employees whose attendance and performance records would lead a reasonably prudent employer to terminate the employees.

A statutory cause of action against the awarding authority, the terminated contractor, or the successor contractor is provided for employees displaced or terminated in violation of the employment requirements. Courts are authorized to award back pay and order reinstatement to prevailing employees. Courts are required to award reasonable attorneys' fees and costs to prevailing employees. The statutory cause of action does not limit an employee's right to bring a common law cause of action for wrongful termination.

Labor Peace Agreement.

The term "labor peace agreement" is defined as an agreement with a labor organization that represents (or seeks to represent) a contractor's employees and that contains provisions under which the labor organization, and its members agree to refrain from engaging in picketing, work stoppages, boycotts, or other economic interference with the contractor's operations.

Contractors and subtenants are required to enter into labor peace agreements (and provide evidence of signed agreements) prior to executing certain leases and contracts, and also when responding to certain requests for proposal.

Service contracts are required to provide that airports have the right to impose penalties (including suspension or termination) and recover damages related to breaches of the labor peace agreement requirement.