To:  CALSAGA members

From: William Hodges, Deputy Association Manager                

Re: CALL TO ACTION: Grassroots effort needed on meal and rest break

Date: April 1, 2009

CALSAGA is sponsoring three major bills this year – two to of which deal with meal period reform to provide legal clarity to the contract private security industry regarding on-duty meal periods. Senate Bill 665 authored by Senator Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) and AB 1235 authored by Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi (D-Hayward), are identical bills that would allow security officers under a collective bargaining agreement to enter into written accord with their employer on how meal periods will be handled on the job, provided that these on-duty meal periods are fully compensated by the employer.

It would also extend to security officers who have a written on-duty meal period agreement with his/her employer. Both bills are scheduled to be heard in their respective committees in late April. In preparation for the committee hearings, we need members to submit support letters to legislators on both committees encouraging their support. To make it easier for you to participate, below are some talking points you can use when crafting your letter:

• On behalf of [insert company name] and the California Association of Licensed Security Agencies, Guards & Associates (CALSAGA), we strongly support [insert SB 665 or AB 1235], which would provide legal clarity to the contract private security industry regarding on-duty meal periods.

• Our industry continues to be susceptible to class action lawsuits over alleged meal break violations. These lawsuits don’t solve anything and hurt both employees and employers alike. Support for [insert appropriate bill number] come from both CALSAGA, the association representing employers, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the labor organization representing more security officers than any other union.

• Due to the nature of contract private security work, the requirement for an off-duty meal period is not practical from a public safety, homeland security, or administrative perspective. From a public safety perspective, allowing or even requiring a security officer to leave his/her post unattended is essentially an advertisement to criminals that a site is unprotected.

• Administratively, because our security officers are dispersed throughout many sites, it makes it virtually impossible to designate employees from a company to drive from site to site to relieve officers to ensure mandatory meal breaks are taken. Furthermore, nearly all employees prefer to perform eight hours of work for eight hours of pay with an on-duty meal break, as opposed to having to work for eight-and-a-half hours to get eight hours of pay.

• In a post 9/11 world, security officers are increasingly being called upon to protect some of California’s most critical infrastructure sites, from energy facilities to oil refineries. In many cases, simply their presence acts as crime deterrence.

• I appreciate your consideration of this letter and urge your support of [insert bill number].

It is absolutely imperative that legislators hear from our industry on these bills, so they clearly understand the issue from our perspective. We can’t stress enough the importance of this grassroots effort. If you have any questions, please contact me at (916) 930-0552 or via email at whodges@calsaga.org.  Please remember to include your company letterhead on any correspondence and fax a copy to CALSAGA at (916) 930-0702 for our records.

Thank you in advance for your participation!