State of California (Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation) (2018) PERB Decision No. 2598-S (Issued on 11/26/18); San Bernardino Community College District (2018) PERB Decision No. 2599-E (Issued on 12/5/18); County of San Joaquin (Sheriff’s Department) (2018) PERB Decision No. 2619-M (Issued on 12/28/18)
In a trio of decisions, PERB has continued to expand the areas in which an employee is entitled to a union (Weingarten) representative.
City of Yuba City (2018) PERB Decision No. 2603-M (Issued on 12/12/18)
Under the MMBA, an employer must hold a “public hearing” regarding the impasse between the parties before it may implement its last, best, and final offer (LBFO). (Gov. Code § 3505.7) In this case the union argued that the employer failed to comply with this requirement because the city council agenda item was listed as “Local 1 Imposition” rather than as a public hearing regarding the impasse between the parties. The Board rejected the union’s arguments.
Los Rios Community College District and Los Rios College Federation of Teachers, Local 2279 (2018) PERB Decision No. 2614-E (Issued on 12/21/18)
This case involved an appeal of two unfair practices charges that were dismissed in 1987. That’s not a typo. Not surprisingly, the Board noted that the appeal was untimely “by more than a quarter century” and affirmed the dismissal.
Cal Fire Local 2881 et al. v. California Public Employees’ Retirement System et al. (State of California), S239958
The California Supreme Court held oral arguments in the Cal Fire case this morning. Cal Fire is an “anti-spiking” pension case. The specific issue is whether the State properly eliminated the option to purchase “air-time” as part of PEPRA. Here is an initial quick summary:
PERB has released its annual report for fiscal year 2017-2018. (The report is available here.) Here is my annual summary of the statistics in the report:
Unfair Practice Charges
690 unfair practice charges (UPCs) were filed in fiscal year 2017-18. In fiscal year 2016-2017, there were 672 UPCs. This means fiscal year 2017-18 saw a 2.7% increase in UPCs compared to the prior year. The change in the number of UPCs varied by statute. The MMBA saw a 13.4% increase (from 261 to 296). The Dills Act saw a 46.7% decrease (from 60 to 32). EERA saw a 15.4% increase (from 240 to 277). HEERA saw a 9.9% decrease (from 81 to 73). The Trial Court Act saw a decrease from 15 UPCs the prior year to 9, while the Interpreter Act remained the same at 1 UPC. Finally, there were 2 UPCs filed under the new Public Employee Communications Chapter.