At its regular meeting on August 10, 2017, the Board instructed each of its divisions to prepare recommendations for the implementation of AB 119, the Public Employee Communication Chapter (PECC). The Board has now scheduled a meeting on August 31, 2017 to hear and act upon those recommendations. Based on the staff report to the Board, here are the recommendations from each division:
I recently wrote about SB 548 here. SB 548 codifies PERB Regulation 32147 on expediting cases. However, as any PERB practitioner can tell you, that regulation is relatively toothless as it only requires the Board to give “priority” to an expedited case “in the manner determined to be appropriate by … the Board itself, the General Counsel, or the Chief Administrative.”
I previously wrote about AB 530 and SB 548 here. In summary, AB 530 would have made peace officers subject to PERB’s jurisdiction for the first time. In contrast, SB 548 would have removed firefighters from PERB’s jurisdiction. However, both bills have since been amended. Here’s an update:
This is Part II of my FAQ’s related to AB 119. (Click here for Part 1.) The basics of the bill have been covered in many other places so my focus here is on some of the more technical aspects of the bill.
How does the bargaining process work? AB 119 provides that an employer shall provide the exclusive representative access to the employer’s new employee orientations. The details of this access are left to negotiations between the parties. Either party may request to begin negotiations. (GC 3557(a).) If negotiations are unsuccessful, the bill provides that any remaining disputes are to be resolved through compulsory interest arbitration. (Ibid.)
By now you’ve heard of the passage of AB 119 which mandates union access to new employee orientations. There is a lot of information out there about this bill, but I know that there are still many questions. I’m going to try to cover some of the most frequently asked questions in a series of posts.
When do I need to begin complying with AB 119? Now. Most bills take effect on January 1st. However, AB 119 is part of the “Budget Bill” (Cal. Const. , Art IV, §12) which means it takes effect immediately.