SB 174-OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY JOB NOTIFICATIONS  1:44:33 PM CHAIR EGAN announced consideration of SB 174. 1:44:58 PM SENATOR GIESSEL said she had submitted an amendment to SB 174 [February 23, 2012 Senate Labor and Commerce Committee meeting] that included posting job opportunities for all industries in Alaska. Its purpose was to promote resident hire on a broader scale to all industries and to include those who live off of the broadband network. Just posting on the Internet could exclude a lot of people. She also said that while they are focused on the hiring of Alaska residents, a report for the Alaska Training Program called "Performance 2010" indicated that Kotzebue has a technical training center for these types of jobs and only 87 percent of those students are Alaska residents (using the Department of Labor and Workforce Development's definition of receiving a Permanent Fund Dividend). The Alaska Institute of Technology's students are 80 percent residents and Galena Learning Academy is 50 percent. It really highlights what they know from being lifelong Alaskans - that Alaskans are made up of both residents and nonresidents, and many of those nonresidents become residents. SENATOR GIESSEL said the other interesting thing that happened since the last committee meeting was that she listened to a radio interview of former Representative Harry Crawford who is from the State of Louisiana. In his interview he talked about coming to Alaska in 1975 and how Alaska was a refuge, because when he came, no one asked him where he was from or who he knew. What they asked was "what can you do." He rapidly received a job and has been here ever since. That is the purpose of her amendment - to post all job opportunities regardless of how high paying they are or where they are offered or what the industry is. She repeated her motion to adopt Amendment 1. 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" 1:48:20 PM SENATOR PASKVAN objected because he thought it would put an added burden on newspapers and other publications distributed throughout the state. 1:49:13 PM SENATOR GIESSEL asked for a roll call vote. SENATOR DAVIS said she wanted to hear the sponsor's opinion on the amendment. 1:49:35 PM SENATOR HOLLIS FRENCH, sponsor of SB 174, said Senator Paskvan stated his objection, which was the expanding cost. A roll call vote was taken. Senator Giessel voted in favor of Amendment 1 and Senators Menard, Davis, Paskvan and Egan voted against it. Therefore, Amendment 1 failed by a 1:4 vote. 1:50:25 PM SENATOR PASKVAN moved to bring CS for SB 174, labeled 27- LS0967\I, back before the committee for purposes of discussion. CHAIR EGAN objected for discussion purposes. 1:50:36 PM SENATOR FRENCH said language on page 2, lines 4-5 of version I, deleted reference to the Alaska online public notice system and replaced it with "Internet-based labor exchange system operated by the department." It's called ALEXsys and they were concerned that it could change in the future. They wanted a generic name so there wouldn't be a conflict. Also on page 2, lines 16-19, the provisions of Alaska Stranded Gas Development Act (in (d)(2)) were expanded to include AS 43.90.130 (15), the AGIA provision. The AGIA provision was missed in the first version of the bill. Both are local hire and local publication provisions within the two acts. No changes were made to sections 2 and 3 and the online public notice system in version M was deleted. The title was amended to conform to the changes made in section 1. CHAIR EGAN noted that Paula Scavara and Paul Dick from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development were available to answer questions. SENATOR MENARD asked if the department liked the bill. 1:53:15 PM PAULA SCAVARA, Special Assistant, Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DOLWD), said the department believes the bill is redundant, because any business can post jobs on its system now for free and it can do it without contacting the department. SENATOR MENARD commented that redundancy isn't ever a good idea in government. MS. SCAVARA said this bill mandates that the information go through the commissioner's office, which then ensures it's posted - plus other entities have to be notified. It makes more work out of something that is already being done. SENATOR MENARD asked why the sponsor is zeroing in on just one industry and duplicating what is already available to all industries. MS. SCAVARA added that not only does the department take job postings, they hold many job fairs for other industries, like prior to the commercial crab season in Unalaska and the tourism industry. 1:57:09 PM SENATOR PASKVAN asked if this would change the zero fiscal note. MS. SCAVARA said that fiscal note was for the online public notice system, which is run by the Lieutenant Governor's Office, and the DOLWD would have to review the CS if it passes, because it would put them in charge of the notifications. SENATOR PASKVAN said his understanding is that employers with more than 100 employees have the discretion to use the system or not. MS. SCAVARA replied that is correct. SENATOR PASKVAN said the bill would just say uniformly that if there is a job, they have to at least follow this minimal process at no cost to them. MS. SCAVARA responded that oil and gas producers with 100 or more employees would have to notify the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, and then the department would have to make the other notifications along with the online posting. SENATOR PASKVAN said that posting now is at no additional charge to the employer. MS. SCAVARA replied she couldn't answer that. SENATOR PASKVAN said assuming they use the system now, posting is a voluntary burden. MS. SCAVARA answered under the bill, they'll have to take another step to notify the commissioner's office. 2:00:27 PM SENATOR GIESSEL asked if she had today's number of job postings. MS. SCAVARA replied no, but she would get the number; she added that it varies each day. SENATOR GIESSEL asked if she was looking only at readily identifiable oil and gas companies or at support industries as well. MS. SCAVARA replied that they looked at certain classification codes of jobs that include more than just the major oil companies, but subcontractors as well. CHAIR EGAN said because the notification requirement just changes departments, he thought the fiscal note should still be zero under the CS. MS. SCAVARA responded that she doesn't work with the data bases on a day-to-day basis. She questioned if the jobs come in every day if they would have to do the notifications every day or once a week. It might require extra staff. SENATOR GIESSEL opined that Ms. Scavara was referring to page 2 of the bill that says the "commissioner shall cause the notification," not that the companies would themselves post these things on the automated system. CHAIR EGAN agreed with her and said the commissioner is causing that through ALEXsys now. MS. SCAVARA responded that no one in the commissioner's office deals with ALEXsys, but that the Employment Security Division works with that. Right now a company enters its own data, but the way this bill is written a company would give its information to the commissioner's office and they would get that data entered somehow. 2:04:14 PM SENATOR FRENCH said he disagreed with her use of the word redundant, because it's clear that all the jobs on the North Slope aren't getting posted on ALEXsys now. The listing as of February 23 showed 25 jobs offered through BP, but ConocoPhillips had only 3. These two companies are roughly the same size and employ roughly the same number of people, and it stands to reason that there are some job openings that ConocoPhillips is not posting. Just getting the word out is a minimal burden on industry and on the administration; this bill is not meant to create a huge new burden. SENATOR PASKVAN commented that assuming they are currently posting, this bill would pose zero extra burden. SENATOR FRENCH agreed if it's already being done, then there is no additional burden. 2:06:07 PM SENATOR PASKVAN moved to report CSSB 174(L&C), version I, from committee with individual recommendations and attached zero fiscal note. There being no objection, the motion carried.