PERSPECTIVES ON CITY CONTRACTORS : Vulnerable Workers Deserve Protection : Successful new bidders should have to keep the previous work force, at least until its worth can be evaluated.

If you are an honest and hard working employee who contributed to your organization’s bottom line, don’t you deserve fair treatment and some protection against catastrophic job loss? Certainly. We all deserve this. Such provisions against abrupt unemployment due to reasons beyond our control are reasonable, especially given the cold job market that most of us would face.

Sadly, more than 300 food concession workers at Los Angeles International Airport were forced to experience this trauma last spring, when they were fired en masse after multi-million-dollar concession contracts changed hands. The new contractors gave pink slips to the existing work force and brought in their own people. Such work displacements by contractors have been common through the years.

In large part because of the resulting public outrage over the airport firings, the Los Angeles City Council in November moved to stop these unfair and inefficient acts against employees of city contractors. It passed the worker retention ordinance, which requires new contractors to keep their predecessor’s employees for at least 90 days before making personnel changes. After this transition period, employers can terminate employees for unsatisfactory work with written cause.

The ordinance, modeled after a more restrictive one in Washington, D.C., and adopted after four months of public notice and debate, does not aim to be unfriendly to business, as some have claimed. In fact, the measure is likely to produce a number of cost savings to employers and taxpayers that may not be apparent on first glance. The law will lower business operating costs by allowing new contractors to access trained and experienced workers from the first day of takeover.

The cost to taxpayers will be reduced as well since the demand for government assistance will be lessened with the new law. Sudden and unexpected unemployment often sends individuals and their families onto the government rolls, where they receive unemployment insurance checks, food stamps and other social services. The new ordinance provides for a three-month transition period that will allow workers to adjust to prepare options for survival instead of being abruptly thrown onto the street.

The quality of service by the city’s contractors should be maintained or improved. The new contractors will have before them an experienced team of workers. The responsibility for the quality and success of an enterprise rests with the owners and management. The rank-and-file are obliged to follow the procedures and direction of their supervisors. It is therefore misguided for the ordinance’s opponents to imply that a change of contractor means the previous contractor had lousy employees. More than likely, it means that the management of the firm was inadequate or that a better deal was found in the open marketplace.

The new law places accountability where it belongs--with the management--while preventing the victimization of lower-rung workers. The ordinance does not handcuff new contractors from taking charge of their organizations. The retention provisions do not apply to a contractor’s supervisorial or managerial staff. Employers can still dismiss unsatisfactory workers after the transition period with a written performance evaluation, which protects workers from unjustified termination.

In addition to being cost-efficient, the worker retention ordinance is fair. It provides a reasonable level of protection in these dire economic times for lower-level workers. It helps stabilize families, financially and emotionally. Competent long-term workers are given the opportunity to demonstrate their worth and thereby retain their seniority and medical and retirement benefits.

This new law is not hurtful to contractors’ balance sheets but it does ensure that workers are not seen merely as numbers. The measure is a head- and heart-driven mandate for stability and a more humane working environment.