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

AB 155 has gotten a lot of press lately. The measure recently passed the Senate Local Government Committee where it had been stalled for over a year. As written, AB 155 would require a local agency to obtain permission from the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission (CDIAC) before filing for bankruptcy. The obvious effect of AB 155 would be to make it much more difficult for local agencies, like the City of Vallejo, to declare bankruptcy. I first commented on AB 155 in April 2009 (click here for the post), when I called it an overreaction.However, now that AB 155…

City of San Diego (Office of the City Attorney) (2010) PERB Dec. No. 2103-M (Issued on 3/26/10)Facts:This case arises from the pension funding crisis in San Diego. Very briefly, the crisis resulted from a series of poor decisions by City officials and trustees of the San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System (SDCERS) in the 1990’s. The poor decisions included twice delaying the City’s contributions to the retirement system, increasing future benefits for City employees, and underpricing employee purchases of retirement service credits. The net effect of these decisions was to grossly underfund the retirement system. As a result of the…

County of Sonoma (2010) PERB Decision No. 2100-M (Issued 2/25/10)(Sorry for the delay, I’ve been in trial for almost a month) In this case, PERB recognized that it was bound by the court of appeal’s decision in County of Sonoma v. Superior Court (2009) 173 Cal.App.4th 322, review denied. In that case, the court held that SB 440, which requires public agencies to submit to binding arbitration in certain disputes with public safety unions, was unconstitutional. Accordingly, it is not an unfair practice for a public agency to refuse a request for binding arbitration under SB 440, which is codified in…

California Nurses Association (2010) PERB Decision No. 2094-H (Issued on 2/02/10)These consolidated cases involved allegations of bad faith bargaining brought by the California Nurses Association (CNA) and the University of California (University) against each other. The dispute culminated in a threatened pre-impasse, one-day strike by CNA. Because pre-impasse strikes are presumptively an unfair practice under PERB precedent, CNA justified its threatened strike by characterizing it as an “unfair practice strike,” as opposed to an economic strike. The ALJ agreed, finding that the University engaged in unfair practices which “provoked” CNA’s strike threat. On exceptions, the Board rejected the ALJ’s proposed…

Alameda County and its Deputy Sheriff's Association (DSA) have reached a new six-year contract. According to news reports, the DSA made significant concessions regarding wages, and medical and pension benefits. For example, the contract provides for no salary increases over the first three years, and then allows for increases to bring pay in line with other similarly sized law enforcement agencies during the final three years.Most significant, the contract calls for new deputies to receive a 2-percent-at-50 pension instead of the current 3-percent-at-50 pension arrangement.  However, new deputies may opt for a 3-perecnt-at-55 formula which requires an additional employee contribution…