The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) That when public agencies with jurisdiction over public transit services or the collection and transportation of solid waste award contracts to operate bus and rail services, or to provide for the collection and transportation of solid waste to a new contractor, qualified employees of the prior contractor who are not reemployed by the successor contractor face significant economic dislocation as a result.
(b) That those displaced employees rely unnecessarily upon the unemployment insurance system, public social services, and health programs, increasing costs to these vital government programs and placing a significant burden upon both the government and the taxpayers.
(c) That it serves an important social purpose to establish incentives for contractors who bid on public transit service contracts or contracts for the collection and transportation of solid waste to retain qualified employees of the prior contractor to perform the same or similar work.
(Amended by Stats. 2016, Ch. 874, Sec. 2. (AB 1669) Effective January 1, 2017.)