Court and Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) decisions, commentary on California public sector labor relations

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Supreme Court: Not Yet Time to Examine “California Rule” On Pensions

Cal Fire Local 2881 et al. v. California Public Employees’ Retirement System et al. (State of California) (2019) Case No. S239958 (Issued on 3/4/19) Today the California Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in the Cal Fire case. The issue was whether PEPRA unlawfully eliminated the opportunity for employees to purchase "air time" service credit. The Court held that because the Legislature did not intend to create a contractual right to the purchase of air time, there was no contractual impairment when that option was eliminated. Further, the Court held that air time was not a core pension right because it was not granted as deferred compensation…

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Gov. Newsom Makes First Appointment to PERB

In one of his first acts, Governor Newsom has appointed Lou Paulson to the Board of the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB).  Mr. Paulson is the immediate past President of the California Professional Fire Fighters association, the officially chartered state council for the International Association of Fire Fighters. He has served on numerous state and national boards and committees, including the Executive Board of the California Federation of Labor and the Advisory Board for the University of California Labor Center. Mr. Paulson joins the three other members of the Board at PERB: Eric Banks, Arthur Krantz, and Erich Shiners. A fifth board…

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PERB: Employee Birthday Celebrations are “Non-Work” Activities

Shutterstock 379011010 County of Orange (2018) PERB Dec. No. 2611-M (Issued on 12/19/18)

In this case three county employees, who were union representatives, spent 30 minutes distributing union surveys to employees at their work stations during working hours. They were later told by a county manager to stop distributing the union surveys to employees in work areas during work time. The ALJ found that the county’s directive interfered with protected rights because the County allowed other similar “non-work” activities. The Board affirmed.

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A December to Forget for Employers

If you are a “PERB watcher” then you know that PERB issued a lot of decisions in December.  24 to be exact. PERB only issued 61 decisions in all of 2017-18, so 24 decisions in a month is undoubtedly a record. Many of the 24 decisions involve significant new legal pronouncements by PERB which I will continue to blog about in the coming weeks. But the one thing that immediately jumped out at me about December was that it was not a good month for employers. Of the 24 decisions, 7 were reversals of proposed ALJ decisions. All 7 reversals…

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PERB Affirms Adoption of Johnnie’s Poultry

Shutterstock 364743683 City of Commerce (2018) PERB Decision No. 2602-M (Issued on 12/11/18)

As part of a disciplinary arbitration, the attorney for the employer in this case interviewed two employees who were subpoenaed by the union. The union’s representative objected. However, the city’s attorney proceeded with the interviews and allowed both employees to bring a union representative. According to the decision, during the interviews the city’s attorney did not inform the employees that the interviews were voluntary and that if they chose to participate, the city would not impose any consequences based on their answers or on their refusal to answer any of the questions. The city’s attorney also asked one employee if he knew why the union was calling him as a witness.

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