Council Overrules DWP Board, Extends Worker Protections

One day after the Board of Water and Power commissioners flatly rejected such a step, the City Council on Wednesday overruled the board and agreed to extend protections granted other city contract workers to those employed by the municipal utility.

In a swift, nearly unanimous action, the council overturned the commissioners’ refusal to apply the city’s service contract worker retention law to its contract employees. The ordinance requires that when a city contract changes hands, the new contractor must retain the workers already in the jobs for 90 days.

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who led the council’s action, said she believes that the DWP commissioners have “ideological differences” with the city.

“I hope they get the message: We expect them to follow the policies of the city,” Goldberg said. “It was a little Grinchy of them before Christmas. We expect them to be a part of the city.”

Other city departments or so-called “proprietary agencies,” including the airport and harbor departments, have implemented the provisions of the law, approved last year.

But the DWP commissioners believe that the law went too far and unanimously rejected its provisions at a closed-door meeting Tuesday.

“They felt it would be an intrusion on the prerogatives of business,” said DWP General Manager S. David Freeman, who had recommended commissioners adopt the worker retention provisions.