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

Castaic Union School District (2010) PERB Decision No. J025-M (Issued on 12/7/10)PERB has granted a request for judicial review by the California School Employees Association (CSEA) over the Board’s decision in Castaic Union School District (2010) PERB Decision No. A384E (“Castaic”).  In Castaic, the Board overturned longstanding precedent by holding that school district employees in part-time playground positions, also referred to as "noon-duty aides," who do not otherwise hold a position in the classified service, are not covered by the Educational Employment Relations Act (EERA). Under EERA, PERB decisions on unit determination issues are not reviewable by the courts unless PERB…

County of Los Angeles v. Los Angeles County Employee Relations Commission (Court of Appeal Case No. B217668) (Issued on 12/14/10)Facts:The Service Employees International Union, Local 721 (SEIU) represents several bargaining units in the County of Los Angeles (County). The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the County and SEIU contains an agency-shop agreement. In order to collect its agency fees, SEIU sends an annual Hudson notice to all employees. Historically, the union prepares the Hudson notice, the County prepares the mailing labels, and the County’s Employee Relations Commission (Commission) mails the notices. Using this process the union does not have access…

City of Lodi (2010) PERB Decision No. 2142-M (Issued on 11/16/10)I recently participated in a seminar sponsored by the California Public Employee Relations Program on local rules under the MMBA. One piece of advice I gave to the audieence was that every local entity in California should have its own local rules. Surprisingly, there many local jurisdictions that have not adopted local rules under the MMBA. By not adopting local rules, the PERB model rules (2 Cal. Code of Regs., §61000 et. seq.) apply to the local jurisdiction by default.One important point to remember is that if you are a…

PERB recently released its annual report for fiscal year 2009-2010. (The report is available here.) Here are the highlights for the 200-2010 fiscal year:Unfair Practice Charges 802 unfair practice charges (UPCs) were filed in fiscal year 2009-10. This represents a 7.6% decrease from fiscal year 2008-09 in which 868 UPCs filed. It’s also the lowest number of UPCs filed since 2002, when 802 UPCs were also filed. The decrease in UPCs can be attributed to the Dills Act (82 UPCs versus 167 in 2008-09) and MMBA (267 UPCs versus 310 in 2008-09). UPCs under EERA stayed roughly the same (308…

City of Alhambra (2010) PERB Decision No. 2139-M (Issued on 10/26/10)FactsThe City of Alhambra (City) operates under a merit system that requires competitive employment examinations. The City’s municipal code requires that any classification plan be adopted by the City Council. Under the City’s local employer-employee relations rules, the City retains the right to “establish and determine job classifications.”In 2005, the City proposed and the City Council approved changes to the class specification for Fire Captain. Previously, the job classification for Fire Captain required both an Alhambra Fire Department Fire Engineer certification and Driver 1A and 1B certification for current fire…