Bill Text: NY A09650 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Relates to employment contracts between school bus workers and the department of education in a city with at least one million inhabitants.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-03-27 - referred to education [A09650 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-A09650-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 9650 IN ASSEMBLY March 27, 2024 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. O'DONNELL -- read once and referred to the Committee on Education AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to contracts for the transportation of school children The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Paragraph a of subdivision 14 of section 305 of the educa- 2 tion law, as amended by chapter 273 of the laws of 1999, is amended to 3 read as follows: 4 a. (1) All contracts for the transportation of school children, all 5 contracts to maintain school buses owned or leased by a school district 6 that are used for the transportation of school children, all contracts 7 for mobile instructional units, and all contracts to provide, maintain 8 and operate cafeteria or restaurant service by a private food service 9 management company shall be subject to the approval of the commissioner, 10 who may disapprove a proposed contract if, in [his] such commissioner's 11 opinion, the best interests of the district will be promoted thereby. 12 Except as provided in paragraph e of this subdivision, all such 13 contracts involving an annual expenditure in excess of the amount speci- 14 fied for purchase contracts in the bidding requirements of the general 15 municipal law shall be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder, which 16 responsibility shall be determined by the board of education or the 17 trustee of a district, with power hereby vested in the commissioner to 18 reject any or all bids if, in [his] such commissioner's opinion, the 19 best interests of the district will be promoted thereby and, upon such 20 rejection of all bids, the commissioner shall order the board of educa- 21 tion or trustee of the district to seek, obtain and consider new 22 proposals. All proposals for such transportation, maintenance, mobile 23 instructional units, or cafeteria and restaurant service shall be in 24 such form as the commissioner may prescribe. Advertisement for bids 25 shall be published in a newspaper or newspapers designated by the board 26 of education or trustee of the district having general circulation with- 27 in the district for such purpose. Such advertisement shall contain a 28 statement of the time when and place where all bids received pursuant to 29 such advertisement will be publicly opened and read either by the school 30 authorities or by a person or persons designated by them. All bids 31 received shall be publicly opened and read at the time and place so EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD14753-02-4A. 9650 2 1 specified. At least five days shall elapse between the first publication 2 of such advertisement and the date so specified for the opening and 3 reading of bids. The requirement for competitive bidding shall not apply 4 to an award of a contract for the transportation of pupils or a contract 5 for mobile instructional units, if such award is based on an evaluation 6 of proposals in response to a request for proposals pursuant to para- 7 graph e of this subdivision. The requirement for competitive bidding 8 shall not apply to annual, biennial, or triennial extensions of a 9 contract nor shall the requirement for competitive bidding apply to 10 quadrennial or quinquennial year extensions of a contract involving 11 transportation of pupils, maintenance of school buses or mobile instruc- 12 tional units secured either through competitive bidding or through eval- 13 uation of proposals in response to a request for proposals pursuant to 14 paragraph e of this subdivision, when such extensions [(1)] (i) are made 15 by the board of education or the trustee of a district, under rules and 16 regulations prescribed by the commissioner, and, [(2)] (ii) do not 17 extend the original contract period beyond five years from the date 18 cafeteria and restaurant service commenced thereunder and in the case of 19 contracts for the transportation of pupils, for the maintenance of 20 school buses or for mobile instructional units, that such contracts may 21 be extended, except that power is hereby vested in the commissioner, in 22 addition to [his] such commissioner's existing statutory authority to 23 approve or disapprove transportation or maintenance contracts, [(i)] (A) 24 to reject any extension of a contract beyond the initial term thereof if 25 [he] such commissioner finds that amount to be paid by the district to 26 the contractor in any year of such proposed extension fails to reflect 27 any decrease in the regional consumer price index for the N.Y., 28 N.Y.-Northeastern, N.J. area, based upon the index for all urban consum- 29 ers (CPI-U) during the preceding twelve month period; and [(ii)] (B) to 30 reject any extension of a contract after ten years from the date trans- 31 portation or maintenance service commenced thereunder, or mobile 32 instructional units were first provided, if in [his] such commissioner's 33 opinion, the best interests of the district will be promoted thereby. 34 Upon such rejection of any proposed extension, the commissioner may 35 order the board of education or trustee of the district to seek, obtain 36 and consider bids pursuant to the provisions of this section. The board 37 of education or the trustee of a school district electing to extend a 38 contract as provided herein, may, in its discretion, increase the amount 39 to be paid in each year of the contract extension by an amount not to 40 exceed the regional consumer price index increase for the N.Y., 41 N.Y.-Northeastern, N.J. area, based upon the index for all urban consum- 42 ers (CPI-U), during the preceding twelve month period, provided it has 43 been satisfactorily established by the contractor that there has been at 44 least an equivalent increase in the amount of [his] such contractor's 45 cost of operation, during the period of the contract. 46 (2) (i) Notwithstanding any other provision of this subdivision, the 47 board of education of a school district located in a city with at least 48 one million inhabitants shall include in contracts for the transporta- 49 tion of school children in kindergarten through grade twelve, whether 50 awarded through competitive bidding or through evaluation of proposals 51 in response to a request for proposals pursuant to paragraph e of this 52 subdivision, provisions for the retention or preference in hiring of 53 school bus workers and provisions for the preservation of wages, health, 54 welfare, and retirement benefits and industry tenure for school bus 55 workers who are hired pursuant to such provisions for retention or pref- 56 erence in hiring, in connection with such contracts.A. 9650 3 1 (ii) For the purposes of this subparagraph, "school bus worker" shall 2 mean an operator, mechanic, dispatcher or attendant who is employed by: 3 (A) a contractor that was a party to a contract with the board of 4 education of a school district located in a city with at least one 5 million inhabitants for the transportation of school children in kinder- 6 garten through grade twelve, in connection with such contract; or 7 (B) a subcontractor of a contractor that was a party to a contract 8 with the board of education of a school district located in a city with 9 at least one million inhabitants for the transportation of school chil- 10 dren in kindergarten through grade twelve, in connection with such 11 contract. 12 (iii) When any school bus worker gets laid off from their current 13 employment, the board of education of a school district located in a 14 city with at least one million inhabitants shall create and maintain a 15 master tenure list of such laid off operators, mechanics, and dispatch- 16 ers that were employed as of the last day of the school year immediately 17 preceding the layoff and a master tenure list of such laid off attend- 18 ants that were employed as of the last day of the school year immediate- 19 ly preceding the layoff on which such workers shall be placed, as appro- 20 priate, in order of their tenure in the school bus industry. An employee 21 on any such list shall remain on the list until the employee has an 22 opportunity to select available work. The school district may allow 23 employees who pass once when it is their turn to select available work 24 to remain on the list. Tenure shall be calculated based on continuous 25 employment by any companies in the school bus industry under contract 26 with the board of education of a school district located in a city with 27 at least one million inhabitants or its subcontractors. Such companies 28 and their subcontractors shall give priority in hiring for new, addi- 29 tional, or replacement school bus workers to the individuals on the 30 master tenure list until such list is exhausted. The master tenure list 31 shall determine the order in which employees select available work in 32 the industry. However, upon hire from the master tenure list, the 33 employees shall go to the bottom of the seniority list of their new 34 employer. Employees who move from employer to employer on their own, and 35 have not followed the work, shall be deemed to have a break in service 36 and shall not have the protection of preservation of wages, health, 37 welfare, and retirement benefits and industry tenure. For an employee 38 hired from the master tenure list, if the employee has a current wage 39 rate that is higher than the wage rate for employees of the successor 40 company with similar industry tenure, the employee shall maintain at 41 least such wage rate and be eligible for future wage increases. 42 (iv) The retirement benefits protection for the school bus worker 43 shall apply whether the school bus worker participated in a defined 44 benefit pension plan or a defined contribution (401(k)) pension plan or 45 any other plan, such as a 457 pension plan, when employed by the school 46 bus worker's prior employer, and the successor company shall make 47 payments as appropriate to the plan, but with the guarantee that there 48 shall be no diminishment to the benefits to any school bus worker. Such 49 successor company shall make such payments on behalf of school bus work- 50 ers who participated in a defined benefit pension plan while employed by 51 the school bus worker's prior employer, as are required by such plan, so 52 the employee continues to earn credits toward a pension in such plan 53 while employed by such successor company. 54 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.