Category: PERB News

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PERB Legislative Update

The 2015-2016 legislative session is over. The Governor had until September 30th to act on any pending bills.  Here's recap of legislation affecting PERB: Senate Bill 950 (Baker) — This bill would have enacted the Excluded Employee Arbitration Act to permit excluded employees with the State of California to seek arbitration of certain grievances.  Vetoed by Governor on 9/25/16.  Veto message: “This bill adds arbitration to the existing four step grievance process for state supervisors. Expanding the grievance process for the state's managers to include legally binding arbitration will reduce departments' ability to effectively manage state operations and will result in…

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PERB’s End of Fiscal Year 2015-16 Numbers

Overview: PERB issues 70 decisions PERB’s annual report for fiscal year 2015-16 is due on October 15, 2016. Until then, I have some preliminary numbers based on my tracking of PERB decisions. According to my records, PERB issued a total of 70 decisions this past year.  The prior year PERB issued 74 decisions. Here are other preliminary numbers: Decisions by Statute (Including Non-Precedential Decisions): MMBA: 30 EERA: 24 HEERA: 10 Dills Act: 5 Trial Court: 1 Court Interpreter: 0 LA Met: 0 Decisions by Precedence: Precedential: 54 Non-Precedential: 16 Decisions by Type (Not Including Non-Precedential Decisions): Appeals from Dismissals: 7…

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PERB Chair Martinez Announces Retirement

PERB Chair Anita Martinez has announced that she will retire on July 4, 2016, after more than 40 years of State service. Chair Martinez has the distinction of being the last of PERB’s “original” hires. She opened PERB’s San Francisco Regional Office (SFRO) on July 1, 1976 and subsequently became the Regional Director of the SFRO. During her time at the SFRO, she gained a state-wide reputation for being one of the most effective Board agents for settling cases. Having appeared before her several times in the 1990's, I can say that her reputation was well-earned. In 2011, Governor Brown appointed her to the Board of PERB…

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Will PERB Gain Jurisdiction Over Uber?

Are Uber drivers employees or independent contractors? And if they are independent contractors, how can they be organized to improve their working conditions? As the economy begins to rely more and more on “gig” workers, unions and employee advocates have been grappling with how to protect these workers and advance their working conditions. Last late year there were several articles discussing the “California 1099 Self-Organizing Act” which would bypass unions altogether and allow independent contractors to “negotiate” directly with companies like Uber. Only recently has the actual bill been introduced in the Legislature.

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NLRB Walmart Decision: A Look at Extraordinary Remedies

In 2014, the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) brought a complaint against Walmart for disciplining employees who participated in a set of strikes referred to as the “Ride for Respect.” Walmart asserted that the discipline was lawful because the employees were engaged in “intermittent work stoppages” that are not protected by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). On January 21, 2016, the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) who heard the case issued his decision finding that the work stoppages were in fact protected by the NLRA. (Click here for the case docket.) Because the work stoppages were protected, the ALJ found that Walmart violated the NLRA when it disciplined employees for participating in the strikes.

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