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

I was deeply saddened today to learn of the passing of PERB Chair Tiffany Rystrom. Governor Schwarzenegger issued the following statement regarding Chair Rystrom's death:"Tiffany Rystrom capped a distinguished career by channeling her passion for the law into public service. As a member of the Public Employment Relations Board, and most recently its Chair, she raised the bar on quality, integrity and consistency with the law for every decision. I was proud to have her serve in my Administration. The prayers of both Maria and I go out to Tiffany’s family and her partner Angela.”Chair Rystrom’s full obituary can be…

California Attorneys v. Schwarzenegger, Court of Appeal Case No. C058415 (Issued on 5/28/09)With the support of Attorney General Jerry Brown, the union representing state attorneys—the California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges, and Hearing Officers in State Employment (CASE)—brought a lawsuit seeking to force the State to pay higher salaries. For years, CASE has asserted that state attorneys are paid substantially less than comparable public sector attorneys. Through collective bargaining, CASE has been arguing for “pay parity” but has never achieved its goal. According to CASE, the pay situation is so bad that the State has become “the employer of last resort”…

Sacramento County Measure A passed on Tuesday with 52% of the vote. Measure A added additional law enforcement employees to those covered by the County’s binding interest arbitration provision. Because Sacramento County already had binding interest arbitration for deputy sheriffs, Measure A did not add another public entity to the list of those with binding arbitration. As it stands today, there are 24 charter cities/counties in California with some form of binding interest arbitration. They are: Alameda Anaheim Gilroy Hayward Modesto Monterey Napa Oakland Oroville Palo Alto Petaluma Redwood City Sacramento City Sacramento County Salinas San Francisco San Jose San…

Escondido Union Elementary School District (2009) PERB Decision No. 2019-E (Issued on 4/30/09); County of Yolo (2009) PERB Decision No. 2020-M (Issued on 4/30/09); Alvord Unified School District (2009) PERB Decision No. 2021-E (Issued on 4/30/09).A couple of weeks ago PERB released a trio of decisions all involving allegations of discrimination for protected union activities. If you’ve handled a discrimination case before PERB, you know that the main issue is often the motive behind an employment action—what is referred to as the “nexus.” PERB has a set of factors it analyzes in order to determine whether the necessary “nexus” has…

Today (May 15th) is the day that teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District (District) had originally planned to hold a one-day strike to protest layoffs and other budget-cutting proposals. On Tuesday, May 12th, the District successfully obtained a temporary restraining order (TRO) stopping the strike.The United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) blamed the adverse court decision on a “notoriously anti-union Los Angeles Superior Court judge.” However, according to the LA Times, the court decision was based on the fact that the contract between the District and UTLA contains a no-strike clause. The court order also cited concerns about…