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

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Board Declines to Order “Live Reading” Remedy

United Teachers of Los Angeles (2017) PERB Decision No. 2545-E (Issued on 12/28/17)

I’ve been meaning to discuss this case which was issued late last year.  The most interesting issue in this case was the union’s request for a “live reading” order as a remedy to the unfair practices by the employer. In this case, a pair of charter schools were found to have violated the rights of the union and employees when the principal of one of the schools terminated an after-school meeting between a union organizer and teachers, and made coercive statements. The other school principal was found to have refused to allow union organizers to enter into one of the schools to meet with teachers.

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PERB Releases Case Processing Efficiency Report

PERB has released its report on its Case Processing Efficiency Initiative. (Click here.) The goal of the initiative was to find ways to improve PERB's processing of cases.  A series of meetings were held at PERB's regional offices to gather stakeholder input.  In addition, PERB held a series of internal meetings with its staff.  The final report lists all the ideas presented at these forums in order of High, Medium, and Low priority. PERB has scheduled two  meetings in March to review the report.  The meetings are: March 14, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. at the PERB Headquarters Office, 1031 18th…

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Governor Appoints New Board Members

Governor Brown has announced the appointment of three Board Members to the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). (Click here for the press release.) Priscilla Winslow was re-appointed to the Board.  Member Winslow has been a Member of PERB since 2013. The Governor also announced two new Board Members: Ari Krantz and Erich Shiners.  Mr. Krantz is an attorney with Leonard Carder LLP, a prominent union-side law firm. Mr. Shiners is an attorney with Liebert Cassidy, and formerly an attorney with Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai LLP, where he represented public agencies in all areas of labor and employment law. Here are the bios of the appointees from the Governor’s new release:

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Mark Janus v. AFSCME: Oral Argument Highlights

The Supreme Court held oral argument in the Janus v. AFSCME case this morning.  A transcript of the oral argument can be found here. Overall, the argument was very similar to the one held in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association last year. Here are some highlights of the questions and answers:

How are union agency fees any different than student activities fees or bar association fees? (Questions from Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor) William Messenger, the attorney for Mark Janus, responded that compelling state interests justify these other types of fees, but not for union agency fees.

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PERB: Answer Constitutes a Judicial Admission

City of Calexico (2017) PERB Decision No. 2541-M (Issued on 10/20/17) and Turlock Unified School District (2017) PERB Decision No. 2543-E (Issued on 11/14/17) In both these cases, the proposed ALJ decision found that the employer had committed an unfair practice. The legal issues involved were not novel, but what caught my attention was that in both cases the ALJ held that the employer made a key admission by admitting material allegations in the Answer.  In affirming both proposed decisions, the Board held that if the Answer to the Complaint admits facts in the Complaint, such an admission constitutes a…

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