H. B. 2400
(By Delegates R. Thompson, Swartzmiller,
Ennis and Caputo)
[Introduced February 16, 2005; referred to the
Committee on Government Organization then Finance.]
A BILL to amend the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto two new sections, designated §5A-3-37b and
§5A-3-37c, all relating to creating the "Job Preservation Act
of 2005"; providing companies that lose one hundred or more
employees due to outsourcing of jobs are ineligible to enter
procurement contracts with the state or local governments or
receive government grants; requiring certain companies that
lose one hundred or more employees to notify the Department of
Labor about the loss; requiring the Department to send a
survey to companies that report the loss of one hundred or
more employees in order to determine the number of employees
lost because of outsourcing jobs outside of the United States;
and requiring the Department to provide written notice to
state agencies and local governments.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto two new sections, designated §5A-3-37b and
§5A-3-37c, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. PURCHASING DIVISION.
§5A-3-37b. Job Preservation Act of 2004.
(a) Short title.-- This section shall be known and cited as
the "Job Preservation Act of 2005."
(b) Legislative declaration.-- The Legislature hereby finds,
determines and declares that:
(1) In recent years, a number of companies have replaced
highly-skilled workers from this State with lower-paid, foreign
laborers, a practice that is known as outsourcing.
(2) In many cases, the impetus for the outsourcing is pressure
from domestic and foreign capital venture companies that see
foreign labor as a way of increasing their already significant
profits.
(3) The preservation of jobs in this State is of critical
importance to the economic vitality of the State and the local
communities within the State.
(4) The economic dislocation caused by a company outsourcing
jobs threatens the health, safety, and welfare of the people of
this State.
(5) A company that engages in outsourcing should not enjoy the
benefits of a lucrative state or local procurement contract.
(6) Companies should also be prohibited from receiving any economic development assistance or subsidies from state and local
government.
(c) Definitions.-- As used in this article, unless the context
otherwise requires:
(1) "Company" means any corporation, subchapter S corporation,
professional corporation, business trust, estate, trust, joint
stock company, joint venture, limited liability company,
partnership, association, unincorporated association, society or
any other nongovernmental legal entity.
(2) "Department" means the Department of Labor and Employment.
(3) "Executive Director" means the Executive Director of the
Department of Labor and Employment.
(4) "Local government" means a county, city and county, city,
municipality, town, school district, junior college district, a
local improvement and service district, special district, or any
other independent local entity having the authority under the
general laws of this State to levy taxes or impose assessments.
(5) "Procurement" means any state contract which exceeds five
hundred dollars.
(6) "State" means a department, office, commission,
institution, board or other agency of state government, including
an institution of higher education.
(7) "Survey" means the job relocation survey that the
Executive Director prepares in accordance with the provisions contained in subsection (d) of this section.
(d) Job relocation - Notice - Survey.--
(1) On or before the thirty-first day of January, two thousand
six and each thirty-first day of January thereafter, any company
doing business in this state that had a net loss of one hundred or
more employees in the state during the prior calendar year shall
notify the Department of the loss.
(2) The Executive Director shall prepare a job relocation
survey to be completed by a company that notifies the Department
pursuant to subdivision (1) of this subsection. In addition to any
other information required by the Executive Director, the survey
shall include the following:
(A) The name and principle place of business of the company;
(B) Identification of any procurement contracts that the
company has with the state or a local government;
(C) Identification of any grants or loans that the company has
received from the state or a local government;
(D) A statement of the number of employees of the company that
lost their jobs in the preceding calendar year;
(E) A statement of the number of jobs that were added in this
State the preceding calendar year; and
(F) A statement of the number of jobs that employees lost that
were caused as a result of the company outsourcing the jobs to
employees located outside of the United States.
(3) A company shall complete and return the survey to the
Department within thirty days of receiving it. A company that
fails to respond to the survey shall be subject to the penalties
identified in subsection (e) of this section until the time that
the survey is completed.
(4) Any person who believes that he or she lost his or her job
as a result of a company outsourcing jobs to employees located
outside of the United States is encouraged to report such
information to the Department.
(e) Outsourcing - Penalties. --
(1) Notwithstanding any provision of law, any company that has
had a net loss of one hundred or more employees in the state during
the prior calendar year and the loss was caused by the relocation
of one hundred or more jobs from this state to a site that is
located outside the United States shall, for a period of seven
years, be ineligible to:
(A) Enter into a procurement contract with the state or a
local government;
(B) Receive any government grants or loans from the state or
a local government; or
(C) Use industrial development revenue bonds from the state
and a local government.
(2) (A) The Executive Director shall provide written notice of
any company identified in subdivision (1) of this subsection to each of the following: (i) The Executive Director of the
Department of Personnel and the head of each purchasing agency;
(ii) each institution of higher education; (iii) any state agency
that provides grants or loans to West Virginia companies; and (iv)
each local government.
(B) The seven-year period of ineligibility under subdivision
(1) of this subsection shall commence on the date of the written
notice provided by the Executive Director pursuant to subdivision
(1) of this subsection.
§5A-3-37c. Ineligible companies.
No procurement contract may be awarded to any company that is
ineligible under the provisions of subsection (e), section
thirty-seven-b of this article. For the purpose of this section,
the term "company" has the same meaning as set forth in section
thirty-seven-b of this article.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide certain
companies are ineligible to enter procurement contracts with the
State or local governments or receive government grants while
requiring those companies, specifically, companies that lose one
hundred or more employees due to outsourcing to notify the
Department of Labor about the loss of employees. The bill also
requires the department to send a survey to companies that report
the loss of one hundred or more employees in order to determine the
number of employees lost because of outsourcing jobs outside of the
United States while, additionally, requiring the department to
provide written notice to state agencies and local governments.
§§5A-3-37b and 5A-3-37c
are new; therefore, strike-throughs
and underscoring have been omitted.
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