Category: News

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PERB Adopts Heightened Version of Purple Communications

Shutterstock 400255669 Napa Valley CCD (2018) PERB Decision No. 2563-E (Issued on 5/25/18)

This precedential decision involves an appeal from a dismissal.  The central issue was whether charging party, an employee, engaged in protected activity by sending e-mails to co-workers. To answer this question the Board had to decide whether the employee had the right to send e-mails via the employer’s e-mail system. This question provided PERB an opportunity to consider whether to follow the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) decision in Purple Communications, Inc. (2014) 361 NLRB No. 126 (“Purple Communications”).

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Trying to Predict the Impact of Janus

The Illinois Economic Policy Institute has released a study on the anticipated impact of Janus v AFSCME, based on the widely-held assumption that the Supreme Court will hold that agency fees are unconstitutional. The report—entitled “After Janus: The Impending effects on Public Sector Workers from a Decision Against Fair Share”—can be found here. The report attempts to predict the impact of Janus by examining the statistical differences in union membership and hourly wages between states with “right-to-work” (RTW) laws and states without RTW laws. According to the report, as of March 2018, 27 states have RTW laws and 23 states…

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AB 2154: Mandates Paid Release Time for Union Reps

AB 2154 was introduced on February 12, 2018, by Assembly Member Bonta.  AB 2154 provides uniform minimum standards for paid release time for union representatives across all the acts administered by PERB.  Specifically, the bill mandates that an employer provide a “reasonable” number of employee representatives time off without loss of compensation for the following activities:

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PERB Releases Case Processing Efficiency Report

PERB has released its report on its Case Processing Efficiency Initiative. (Click here.) The goal of the initiative was to find ways to improve PERB's processing of cases.  A series of meetings were held at PERB's regional offices to gather stakeholder input.  In addition, PERB held a series of internal meetings with its staff.  The final report lists all the ideas presented at these forums in order of High, Medium, and Low priority. PERB has scheduled two  meetings in March to review the report.  The meetings are: March 14, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. at the PERB Headquarters Office, 1031 18th…

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Governor Appoints New Board Members

Governor Brown has announced the appointment of three Board Members to the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). (Click here for the press release.) Priscilla Winslow was re-appointed to the Board.  Member Winslow has been a Member of PERB since 2013. The Governor also announced two new Board Members: Ari Krantz and Erich Shiners.  Mr. Krantz is an attorney with Leonard Carder LLP, a prominent union-side law firm. Mr. Shiners is an attorney with Liebert Cassidy, and formerly an attorney with Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai LLP, where he represented public agencies in all areas of labor and employment law. Here are the bios of the appointees from the Governor’s new release:

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