The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) That when public transit agencies award contracts to operate bus and rail services to a new contractor, qualified employees of the prior contractor who are not reemployed by the successor contractor face significant economic dislocation as a result.
(b) That those displaced employees rely unnecessarily upon the unemployment insurance system, public social services, and health programs, increasing costs to these vital government programs and placing a significant burden upon both the government and the taxpayers.
(c) That it serves an important social purpose to establish incentives for contractors who bid public transit services contracts to retain qualified employees of the prior contractor to perform the same or similar work.