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

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Gov Signs Law Prohibiting Lawsuits for Pre-Janus Damages

Yesterday, the Governor signed SB 846 which protects unions and public employers against lawsuits seeking the payment of agency fees collected prior to the Janus decision.  (Click here for the SacBee article on this bill.) The law adds Government Code section 1159 which provides that it is a "complete defense" to such lawsuits if the fees were collected pursuant to state law - which they all were. According to the Legislature, public employees who paid agency fees prior to June 27, 2018—the date of the Janus decision—had no legitimate expectation of receiving that money under any available cause of action. Therefore unions and…

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AB 2305 Awaits Action by Governor

AB 2305 passed the Legislature on August 27, 2018, and currently awaits action by the Governor.  I previously wrote about this bill here.  In short, AB 2305 would eliminate the carve-out for peace officer unions and bring them under the jurisdiction of PERB, while continuing the carve-out for peace officer individuals.  It will be interesting to see what the Governor does since he previously vetoed AB 530, a similar version of the bill. When I first wrote about this bill, one of my complaints was that the supporters of this bill were characterizing it as a codification of existing law based…

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Janus Webinar on August 20th

On August 20, 2018, the Labor & Employment Law Section of the California Lawyers Association (formerly the State Bar of California) is holding a webinar on Janus. It's titled "Janus v AFSCME: How Unions and Employers are Responding to the Decision" and will be held from 12 noon to 1:00 p.m. You can register by clicking here. I am honored to be one of the presenters for the webinar, along with two of the best-known lawyers in the field: Felix De La Torre, General Counsel for the Public Employment Relations Board and Kerianne Steele with Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld. A lot of interesting things…

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Supreme Court: San Diego Must Bargain Pension Reform Measure

Boling v PERB (Cal. Supreme Court Case No. S242034) In 2012, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders helped launch the “Citizens Pension Reform Initiative” (CPRI) in an effort to address the unsustainability of the City’s pension obligations. CPRI supporters gathered enough signatures to qualify the CPRI for the ballot. In November 2012, over 65% of the citizens of San Diego voiced their support for pension reform by voting for the CPRI. The unions then filed unfair practice charges against the City arguing that Mayor Sanders was acting in his official capacity in supporting the CPRI and therefore the City had an…

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The Next Battle After Janus: Seeking Retroactive Fees

Rebecca Friedrichs is back. But for the death of Justice Scalia, everyone would be talking about "Friedrichs" instead of Mark Janus. But earlier this month, Friedrichs, along with several other teachers, filed a class-action lawsuit against the California Teachers Association and the National Education Association seeking to recoup the agency fees taken from them prior to the Janus decision. The case is titled Scott Wilford et al v. National Education Association (C.D. Cal. 8:18-cv-01169-JVS-ADS).  The primary cause of action is for violation of plaintiffs' constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. 1983. I think the plaintiffs have a tough road ahead of them.  After the Supreme…

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