California seeks to ban outsourcing of Govt jobs
A bill aims to avoid situations like use of customer call centres in India and Mexico for state jobs.
The California Assembly has approved legislation seeking to ban outsourcing of state government service jobs when state agencies sign new deals with private contractors.
The legislation passed on Thursday has to be approved by the California Senate (upper house) before it can become a law.
The bill, sponsored by Carol Liu, Democrat from South Pasadena, is aimed at addressing controversial situations such as the use of customer assistance call centres in India and Mexico by a contractor to the state's food stamp programme.
The bill was approved by 44-26. It now goes before the Senate, where Liu doesn't anticipate trouble with its passage.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has not stated his position on the issue.
Anti-outsourcing legislation has been introduced in 35 states since the beginning of the year, but only one has become a law, according to Justin Marks, an analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In addition to Liu's bill, California legislators have introduced three other bills in the Assembly and three in the Senate that address issues like the protection of privacy in medical and financial information processed overseas and the disclosure of call centre locations.