SB 174-OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY JOB NOTIFICATIONS  2:32:29 PM CHAIR EGAN announced SB 174 to be up for consideration. SENATOR HOLLIS FRENCH, sponsor of SB 174, said this bill had its genesis from the work this committee did with respect to oil industry hiring practices. Early results from the McDowell Group report indicated large numbers of out-of-state residents being hired on the North Slope, and he puzzled about what could be done to tip the balance in favor of Alaska residents. In-state hire cannot be mandated, but maybe Alaskans can be made more aware of these fantastic job opportunities, and SB 174 is designed to do just that. Senator French said he worked eight years on the North Slope and they are great jobs. SENATOR FRENCH said when big companies on the North Slope are hiring, they tell the Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DOLWD) and the department puts it on their website. He was open to any reasonable suggestion, but the idea was to just get the notification out there. CHAIR EGAN remarked that the department was working hard to make ALEXsys more user friendly. 2:35:04 PM SENATOR GIESSEL said she appreciated the intent and possible outcome of this bill and remarked that information in the supporting documents also indicated that 75 percent of the workforce in the seafood industry is non-resident. She said more than one-third of Alaska's employers are in the food services industry and employs lots of non-residents as well. So, she wanted to offer an amendment that would broaden the scope of the bill to include any non-profit that is licensed to do business in the state with more than 100 employees. 2:36:35 PM SENATOR GIESSEL moved conceptual Amendment 1 and asked her staff to explain it. 27-LS0967\M.1 Bailey/Wayne AMENDMENT 1 OFFERED IN THE SENATE TO: SB 174 BY SENATOR GIESSEL Page 1, line 1: Delete "in the oil and gas production industries" Page 1, line 3: Delete "that" Insert "job opportunity" Page 1, line 8: Delete "by oil and gas producer" Page 1, line 9: Delete "an oil or gas producer" Insert "a for-profit business licensed to do business in the state" Page 1, line 10: Delete "producer" Insert "for-profit business" Page 2, lines 12 - 13: Delete "and notifies job service organizations as required under AS 43.82.230(b); or" Insert "in newspapers in the location where the work is to be performed and in other publications distributed throughout the state, including in rural areas; (2) the employer uses Alaska job service organizations located throughout the state and not just in the location where the work is to be performed in order to notify Alaskans of work opportunities; and" Renumber the following paragraph accordingly. Page 2, line 17: Delete all material. Page 2, line 18: Delete "(2)" Page 2, line 20: Delete ";" Insert "." Page 2, lines 21 - 24: Delete all material. Page 3, line 6: Delete "with oil or gas producers" Page 4, line 4: Delete "and" Page 4, line 6, following "AS 23.05.095": Insert "; and  (13) a statement of state and municipal job  opportunities" 2:37:19 PM SHARON LONG, staff to Senator Giessel, explained that this amendment broadens the bill to cover any for-profit business doing business in Alaska. It would make any available jobs open to Alaskans. Language on page 1, line 1, deletes "in the oil and gas production industries", on line 3 it adds "job opportunity" after "requiring", on line 8 it deletes "oil or gas producer". The fourth change was on page 1, line 9, that deletes "an oil and gas producer" and inserts "for-profit business licensed to do business in the state". Page 1, line 10, deletes "producer" and inserts "for-profit business". Page 2, lines 12 and 13, deletes "and notifies job service organization as required under AS 43.82.230(b) and inserts: 1. In newspapers in the location where the work is to be performed and in other publications distributed throughout the state including rural areas. 2. The employer uses Alaska job service organizations located throughout the state and not just in the location where the work is to be performed in order to notify Alaskans of work opportunities. Change 7 deletes language on page 2, line 17, deletes "2" on page 2, line 18, and on line 20 inserts a period. Language is deleted on page 2, lines 21-24. On page 3, line 6, "with oil or gas producers" is deleted which again broadens the application outside the oil and gas industry. On page 4, line 4, "and" is deleted; on line 6 "and (13) statement of state and municipal job opportunities" is inserted after "AS 23.05.095." SENATOR DAVIS asked what the sponsor thought of the amendment. SENATOR FRENCH said he appreciated the sentiment behind it, but was concerned about the reporting burden it puts on other companies. The reason he focused on the oil and gas industry was because of the information in "The Non-Residents Working in Alaska Handbook" for 2010. This book indicates that the oil and gas industry employs less than 5 percent of all Alaskan workers. But it has a substantial impact on Alaska's economy; oil and gas industry earnings are 2.7 times higher than average annual earnings for all other industries combined! The same book indicates that the percentage of non-resident workers in the oil and gas industry has historically been higher than the statewide average for all industries. So, he is aiming at the center of the target - at the problem with the biggest economic impact, out-of-state workers taking high paying oil jobs. SENATOR FRENCH said he thought Senator Giessel's idea to broaden it was a good one, but that maybe it should be in a stand-alone bill and he wanted to hear from the Department of Labor about what sorts of work would go into putting this into effect. If they say it's no problem whatsoever and has no fiscal impact, he would be fine with it. He also pointed out that it's easier to get a tour guide job with Gastineau Channel Guiding, because they are already advertising on the radio and if you want to work in the seafood industry, just show up. But if you want to work on the North Slope "that's tougher," because of the high pay and the high number of people coming up from out-of-state claiming those jobs. 2:44:41 PM SENATOR GIESSEL agreed with him but said that still doesn't address the fact that 75 percent of the employees in the fish processing industry are non-residents. In fact a high percent are not even Americans. The same is true in the tourism industry. SENATOR PASKVAN said he understood precisely what she was saying, but this bill has a zero fiscal note and he didn't know what the notification requirements in newspapers and other publications distributed throughout the state would mean. It could cause significant problems. CHAIR EGAN said the amendment was offered and it was his intent to take it up again at the next meeting. SENATOR MENARD asked if it applied only to for-profits licensed to do business in Alaska as long as they have over 100 employees. SENATOR GIESSEL said that was correct and it would not include the film industry which is not required to be licensed in the state. 2:47:58 PM DENNIS BAILEY, Attorney, Legislative Legal Services, Legislative Affairs Agency, Alaska State Legislature, said he didn't have any comments but would answer questions. SENATOR PASKVAN asked if he thought the zero fiscal note would be changed with adoption of the amendment. MR. BAILEY replied that his department doesn't deal with fiscal notes. SENATOR DAVIS said she wanted to know how this amendment would affect the bill when it comes up for a hearing again. 2:49:52 PM PAULA SCAVERA, Legislative Liaison, Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DOLWD), pointed out that the notification in the current version of SB 174 goes to the online public notice system, which is an inter-departmental public system where regulations and meetings are posted; it is not ALEXsys, the jobs network system for which she prepared an explanation on some handouts. She emphasized again that the online public notice system was what was in the bill. CHAIR EGAN said that could be easily amended to make it also accessible to ALEXsys. MS. SCAVERA said the system is currently available to all businesses in Alaska. Just this morning she looked at all oil and gas jobs on the ALEXsys system and found 12 oil and gas producing companies that had 112 jobs posted. SENATOR GIESSEL asked about companies in the medical field or construction jobs. MS. SCAVERA answered that they have construction, drafting, waitressing and administrative assistant jobs posted and she would be happy to show committee members the online system. 2:52:45 PM SENATOR GIESSEL asked if the oil and gas companies are already doing this as are multiple other industries in the state. MS. SCAVERA replied yes. SENATOR PASKVAN said they know what they post, but how does one know what they haven't posted. MS. SCAVERA acknowledged that. SENATOR PASKVAN said it's more accurate to say they know what their practice is, but they don't know if it is all-inclusive. MS. SCAVARA said that was correct. They don't know if there are 10,000 jobs out there and only 112 of them were getting posted as of this morning. She personally didn't know if three weeks ago 400 jobs were posted and then filled. They do know how many jobs have posted through the ALEXsys system to gain employees in Alaska. SENATOR GIESSEL asked when someone applies for unemployment and is required to continue seeking work if this would be one of the places they would be expected to search. MS. SCAVARA answered yes. SENATOR MENARD said she was interested in getting a better understanding of how many hits the job site gets and asked if they have that data. 2:55:16 PM PAUL DICK, Director, Employment Security Division, Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DOLWD), replied yes; last year ALEXsys posted 35,000 jobs and had 300,000 visits. SENATOR MENARD asked what industry the 35,000 jobs went to. MR. DICK replied that they can look at the types of jobs that are posted, but they don't have the results of whether a particular person got employed or not. SENATOR MENARD said they should be able to get that information as they advance to find out if a job was actually secured. MR. DICK answered that their records track re-employment rates. 2:57:32 PM SENATOR PASKVAN said requiring notification through newspapers in the location where the work is performed and in other publications distributed throughout the state including rural areas would seem to impose a criterion for entry into the system. MS. SCAVERA responded that right now the department is kind of involved in the bill, but their system is not in the bill and didn't know what the fiscal implications would be. SENATOR PASKVAN said currently an employer can access their system at no charge. MS. SCAVERA answered yes. CHAIR EGAN added that since it's maintained by the department there wouldn't be any increased costs for posting on ALEXsys. MS. SCAVERA replied the fiscal note would be about the departmental notification to the other entities that the bill requires. Right now there is no cost for a business to post a job because the HR person for any business in the state can post one. CHAIR EGAN said it seems like a clever IT person could figure out how it could be done. MS. SCAVERA said the problem also is that not every community in Alaska has broadband Internet. For instance, during this winter's storms, St. George, St. Michael and St. Paul didn't have Internet service for over a month. You have to be careful what you mandate when it's for municipalities and communities. CHAIR EGAN remarked that problem exists now, but be understood what she was saying. He held the amendment and SB 174 in committee.