News Alert: SB 866 On Its Way to Governor
PERB Adopts Heightened Version of Purple Communications
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”).
AB 3034: Expands PERB Jurisdiction to Include BART Supervisors
AB 3034 was introduced on February 16, 2018, by Assembly Member Low. AB 3034 would place the supervisory employees of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District under the MMBA and under PERB’s jurisdiction. Currently, most transit employees are covered under various statutory sections of the Public Utilities Code, and therefore are not under PERB’s jurisdiction. One exception is the Transit Employer Employee Relations Act (TEERA) which places the supervisory employees of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority under PERB’s jurisdiction. AB 3034 accomplishes the same result as the TEERA for BART supervisors. However, instead of creating an…
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…
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…