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

Castaic Union School District (2010) PERB Decision No. A384E (Issued on 8/09/10)In an unexpected decision, PERB has held 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). This decision overturns the Board’s holding in Pittsburg Unified School District (1976) EERB Decision No. 3 (“Pittsburg”). What is significant is that the Pittsburg decision has been binding precedent for over 30 years; indeed it was the third decision ever issued by PERB (then known as EERB).The…

Have you ever wondered what the letters and numbers in a PERB charge mean?  Here's what you need to know.  All PERB charges follow the same rule:  The first two letters denote the PERB office where the charge was filed; the next two letters denote the type of case; next the number is the number of the charge under the Act; and the last letter is the Act under which the charge was filed.Here's a guide to the abbreviations used:Location:SA = SacramentoSF = San Francisco (Note: For those of you wondering, yes, PERB's office is in Oakland.  But it used to be…

Fiscal year 2009-2010 is over. PERB’s annual report for 2009-2010 is not due until October 1, 2010. However, I have been keeping track of PERB’s decisions throughout the year. So unless there are additional cases issued before June 30th that PERB has not posted on its website, I have the final tally for the year.  For fiscal year 2009-2010, PERB issued 79 decisions.  The year before, fiscal year 2008-2009, PERB issued 89 decisions. However, PERB had five board members in 2008-09, while it had only four board members for most of 2009-2010, and ended the last few months with only three board members.…

State of California (Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, Department of Personnel Administration) (2010) PERB Decision No. 2115-S (Issued on 6/10/10)FactsThis case stems from the State’s decision to close the El Paso De Robles Youth Correctional Facility (El Paso) and the DeWitt Nelson Youth Correctional Facility (DeWitt) in response to an anticipated drop in the juvenile population held by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) resulting from the passage of SB 81. In November 2007, CDCR developed preliminary plans to close both the El Paso and the DeWitt facilities effective July 31, 2008. Given the language of SB 81, CDCR…

City of San Jose v. Operating Engineers Local Union No. 3 (Case No. S162647) (Issued on July 1, 2010)The California Supreme Court has just issued its decision in City of San Jose.  The key holding is as follows:"California allows public employees to go on strike to enforce their collective bargaining demands unless the striking employees perform jobs that are essential to public welfare. But whether a particular employee’s job is so essential that the employee may not legally strike is a complex and fact-intensive matter, and one on which public employee organizations and public entities may disagree.Here, we address this…