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

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PERB Advisory Committee Meeting on January 17, 2013

The Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) has announced a meeting of its Advisory Committee for January 17, 2013 at 10 am.  The location will be at the PERB headquarters in Sacramento at 1031 18th Street, First Floor, Room 103, Sacramento, CA. The scheduled agenda items are: 1) possible regulation changes concerning the conduct of elections by the State Mediation and Conciliation Service; and 2) timing of regulation changes related to the enactment of the In-Home Supportive Services Employer-Employee Relations Act.  In addition there will be time for participants to ask questions and raise other issues.

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Update on New PERB Regs

In October, PERB issued two notices of proposed rulemaking.  One set of regulations related specifically to the transfer of the State Mediation and Conciliation Service (SMCS) to PERB while the other set of regulations made various miscellaneous changes. On December 13, 2012, PERB held a public hearing on the proposed changes.  My understanding is that PERB voted to move forward with the proposed rulemaking package.  So now PERB must submit a "Final Statement of Reasons" for the regulatory changes to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL).  The OAL then has 30 days to review the proposed regulations.  I don't foresee any problem with…

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PERB Issues Notice of Rulemaking

PERB has recently issued two notices of proposed rulemaking.  One set of proposed regulations is aimed at implementing the transfer of the State Mediation and Conciliation Service from the Department of Industrial Relations to PERB.  The other set of proposed regulations makes a change in one of the following subject matters: (1) filing and service of documents; (2) maintenance of a list of arbitrators; (3) appointment of factfinding chairpersons under the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act; (4) Board decisions; (5) Board policy on expediting cases; (6) unfair practice charge processing; or (7) recognition petition procedures under the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act.  The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking…

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Negotiating Changes to Employee/Employer Share of Pensions

City of Pinole (2012) PERB Decision No. 2288-M (Issued on 10/15/12) This case involves one of the hottest issues in public sector collective bargaining: employers trying to get employees to pay more towards their pensions.  Here, the city was part of the CalPERS system.  Under the city’s pension plan applicable to firefighters, the employee share is 9% while the employer must cover the rest of the cost, which was about 21%.  Under the prior memorandum of understanding (MOU), the city paid the full employee’s share (9%) while the employees paid part (~4%) of the employer’s share. During negotiations, the city proposed…

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PERB Issues 2011-12 Annual Report

PERB has released its annual report for fiscal year 2011-2012. (The report is available here.)  Here is my annual summary of the statistics in the report: Unfair Practice Charges 768 unfair practice charges (UPCs) were filed in fiscal year 2011-12.  This represents a 3.2% increase from fiscal year 2010-11 in which 744 UPC’s were filed and reverses a two-year trend of decreasing UPC filings. The increase in UPC’s can be attributed largely to EERA (304 UPC’s versus 276 in 2010-11).  The Dills Act actually saw a decrease (48 UPC’s versus 61 in 2010-11) while filings under the other acts remained largely static. Last…

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