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

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PERB’s End of Fiscal Year Numbers

Overview: PERB issues 74 decisions

PERB’s annual report is due October 15th. So the report for fiscal year 2014-2015 should be available on PERB’s website any day now. Until then, I have some preliminary numbers based on my tracking of PERB decisions.  Note, there are some missing case numbers in my tracking system and I don’t know if it’s because I missed a case or because PERB skipped some decision numbers. Once the annual report is released I’ll be able to figure out what happened. So with that caveat, my records indicate that PERB issued a total of 74 decisions this past year.  The prior year PERB issued 87 decisions. Again, because I’m not sure if I missed some decisions I can’t be positive that the total number of decisions is lower this year than last year. However, if it is lower this year, it’s not by much.

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PERB: Employer Must Let Employees Vote on Modified Agency Shop Provision

Orange County Water District (2015) PERB Decision No. 2454-M (Issued on 09/23/15)

With the Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association (Friedrichs) case before the Supreme Court, the issue of public sector agency fees is a topic on everyone’s mind. This case was spawned, in part, by worry over the potential consequences of Friedrichs. The issue here involved a Modified Agency Shop (MAS) agreement proposed by the Orange County Water District Employees Association (Union). The “modification” was that only new employees would be required to pay agency fees; current employees would be exempt.

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Governor Signs SB 331 (CRONY); Vetoes SB 406 (Expanded CFRA)

On Friday, October 9, the Governor signed SB 331, which imposes hurdles for public agencies seeking to enact "Civic Openness in Negotiations” (COIN) measures.  (I previously wrote about SB 331 here.) I was holding out hope that the Governor would veto this cynical bill but he ended up signing it. On Sunday, October 11, the Governor vetoed SB 406, which would have expanded the coverage and scope of the California Family Rights Act. (I previously wrote about SB 406 here.) In this veto message, the Governor stated: I support the author's efforts to ensure that eligible workers can take leave to care…

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SB 406: Expands California Family Leave Act

Last Friday, September 11th, was the last day for any bill to pass the Legislature this year. One of the most closely watched bills was SB 406, a measure that expands the California Family Leave Act (CFRA). This bill was labeled a “job killer” by the California Chamber of Commerce. Despite that designation, SB 406 made it out of the Assembly on a 41-29 vote. The bill is now on the Governor’s desk.

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COIN v. CRONEY: SB 331 Advances in Legislature

The Birth of COIN

In 2012, the City of Costa Mesa adopted an ordinance aimed at making collective bargaining more transparent. Costa Mesa called its ordinance “Civic Openness in Negotiations” or COIN. Since then several other public agencies have adopted similar COIN ordinances, including Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, Fullerton, and Orange County. (Click here for Orange County Register article.) COIN ordinances generally have some or all of these features:

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