Maintenance Services

Maintenance Services 

Facilities Services process day-to-day maintenance orders for goods and services that are needed to support the campus operations.

Covered Services are defined as work customarily performed by bargaining unit employees at the university in the categories of services described in Regents Policy 5402 and include cleaning, custodial, janitorial, or housekeeping services, groundskeeping, and building maintenance (excluding skilled crafts).  

The University must utilize its employees to perform "Covered Services"  to the greatest extent possible before resorting to the use of private contractors/suppliers to provide such services. Contracting for covered services only is permissible under limited circumstances.

Send a request to: Art5_ELR@berkeley.edu if you need to use suppliers for Covered Services. 

Maintenance is the upkeep of property, machinery, systems, and facilities, including buildings, utility infrastructure, roads, and grounds. Maintenance consists of those activities necessary to keep facilities and systems operational and in good working order. It consists of the preservation, but not improvement, of buildings and grounds, other real property improvements and their components. Maintenance may include the replacement of components of equipment or building systems (roof, flooring, HVAC,etc.) if replacement is performed.

  • on a routine or recurring basis,
  • to bring the equipment or building system back to its fully functional state,
  • to ensure equipment or building system retains its functionality for its anticipated useful life.

Subject to the above limitations, replacement of a component of a building system for preservation, not improvement is a form of maintenance when the replacement component is a duplicate. i.e. replacement in kind, or, if not, the replacement item is an upgrade because a duplicate component is obsolete or no longer reasonably available.  When the replacement is undertaken for the purpose of upgrading a system, it is not maintenance and could fall into a construction job. 

Maintenance vs Construction:

The following Maintenance vs Construction guide can be used as a reference but Construction personnel will ultimately determine what services fall under construction projects.  Real Estate manages construction projects and you can find additional information on the Capital Strategies website.

Examples of Maintenance services:

  • Interior or exterior window washing 
  • Recycling pickup
  • Building trades, skilled-craft maintenance services

Consult with your Buyer before contracting for any maintenance projects over $100,000.

How to hire a Maintenance Service Providers:

  1. Confirm that this order is NOT part of a current or pending construction project or using construction funding.
  2. Confirm that this order does NOT involve cleaning, custodial, janitorial or housekeeping services, groundskeeping or building maintenance services customarily performed by University employees
  3. Skilled-craft, prevailing wage facility maintenance work of more than $15,000 will require a DIR project number.
  4. Once the work order process is approved, Use the following Form in BearBuy: “Services and Non-Tangible Items.”
  5. Are the services performed on UC property? Check the Prevailing Wage (PW) check box, if applicable.  If not PW, select the Fair Wage / Fair Work (FW) PO clause.
  6. Facility Services should attach the following Required PO Documents to the Form as directed in BearBuy:

Required documents from Facility Services:

  1. UCOP Source Selection & Price Reasonableness (SSPR) Justification Form
  2. Statement of Work – or – PO line description defining the services
  3. PO line description: Add the Prevailing Wage project number issued from the Department of Industrial Relations: DIR# XXXX or in process, if applicable.
  4. Attach the Formal Notice Pursuant to University Guidelines on Contracting for Services after Labor Relations has reviewed and approved the request for Services.
  5. Is there an agreement in place?  Associate the Bear by requisition to the MSA link.

Required documents from the Supplier:

  1. Insurance
  2. Supplier’s proposal
  3. Special Considerations for additional potential issues.
    1. Services of a Type that are Currently Performed by UC Employees will require a review and additional notice from Labor Relations.
    2. Fair Wage / Fair Work: Will the services be performed on the UC campus, medical centers or LBNL and NOT contain prevailing wage / public works or sponsored funds.  Provide a comment in the requisition with the percentage of services that will be performed on the campus versus at the Supplier’s place of business.  Fair Wage requirements must be communicated to bidders prior to collecting quotes so that accurate pricing will be reflected in the quotes.
    3. Prevailing Wage: Will these services involve physical changes to a building (painting, carpeting), maintenance, improvements to UC buildings or land, or moving or landscaping services? Check the prevailing wage checkbox.  Prevailing Wage requirements must be communicated to bidders prior to collecting quotes so that accurate pricing will be reflected in the quotes, and bidders must be registered with the Department of Industrial Relations prior to start of work or issuing of an agreement.
    4. The Buyer will use the above documentation to create a Service Agreement if there isn’t one in place, which will be signed by the Buyer and the Supplier.

For more information, see Finance Bulletin:  BFS-BUS-43 Purchases of Goods and Services; Supply Chain Management & UC Facilities Manual


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