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 year I had predicted that UPC’s under the Dills Act and HEERA would stay about the same or decrease, which turned out to be accurate. The big unknown was EERA which I thought would either stay about the same or slightly increase. The MMBA was also a big unknown because I wasn’t sure of the impact of AB 646. For 2011-12, UPC filings under the MMBA stayed about the same (319 UPC’s versus 315 in 2010-11). For next year, I predict that UPC’s under the Dills Act and HEERA will continue to decline because contracts are largely in place. The big unknown for EERA is Prop 30; if it doesn’t pass school districts are going to have some touch choices to make, which will probably cause UPC filings to rise. As for the MMBA, I expect things to stay about the same, although the full effect of AB 646 may begin to be felt.
Below, I have listed the number of UPC filings for each year going back to 2001-02.
Year: # of UPCs
2011-12: 768
2010-11: 744
2009-10: 802
2008-09: 868
2007-08: 816
2006-07: 823
2005-06: 1012
2004-05: 1126
2003-04: 838
2002-03: 802
2001-02: 740
ALJ Proposed Decisions
In 2011-12, the ALJs at PERB issued 61 proposed decisions. This is a huge increase (61%) from the 38 decisions issued in 2010-11. However, last year was a bit of an anomaly as PERB was short-staffed in its ALJ division. The 61 proposed decisions issued this year are the most proposed decisions ever issued by PERB going back to 2002-03. I had predicted that the ALJ division would get back on track this year and that certainly was the case. In addition, the average time required to issue a decision decreased from 122 days to 102 days. That’s still higher than ideal, but at least going in the right direction.
Year: # of Proposed Decisions (Average # of Days)
2011-12: 61 (102)
2010-11: 38 (122)
2009-10: 57 (86)
2008-09: 52 (94)
2007-08: 44 (94)
2006-07: 41 (85)
2005-06: 46 (100)
2004-05: 49 (63)
2003-04: 47 (53)
2002-03: 52 (53)
Board Decisions
For 2011-12, the Board itself issued 100 decisions. It also considered 21 injunctive relief (IR) requests. The 100 decisions is a 26.5% increase from the 79 decisions issued in both 2009-10 and 2010-11. For 2012-13, I expect the number of Board decisions to slightly decrease. This is because the Board still has only three members and Member Dowdin-Calvillo’s term expires at the end of the year. If she is not reappointed, there will naturally be some “start-up” time required to get a new Board Member in place. In addition, it’s almost the end of October and the Board has only issued 14 decisions, so equaling the 100 decisions issued last year will be tough.
The chart below lists the number of decisions issued by the Board since 2001. (In past years, the Board has sometimes included IR requests in its decision count. So to make things easier to compare, I have listed the number of Board decisions, IR requests, and the total.)
Year: # of Board Decisions/IR Requests/Combined Total
2011-12: 100/21/121
2010-11: 79/16/95
2009-10: 79/13/92
2008-09: 89/19/108
2007-08: 65/28/93
2006-07: 87/16/103
2005-06: 80/23/103
2004-05: 142/14/156
2003-04: 128/13/141
2002-03: 73/14/87
2001-02: 44/23/67
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