PERB Issues 2018-19 Annual Report

PERB has released its annual report for fiscal year 2018-2019. (The report is available here.) Here is my annual summary of the statistics in the report:

Unfair Practice Charges

691 unfair practice charges (UPCs) were filed in fiscal year 2018-19. This is almost identical to the 690 UPCs filed in fiscal year 2017-18, and below the 20-year annual average of 754 UPCs.

Interestingly, the number of UPCs under each act was also remarkably similar. The MMBA saw a slight decrease from 296 to 289 UPCs. EERA went from 277 to 279 UPCs. The Dills Act went from 32 to 31 UPCs. HEERA stayed the same at 73 UPCs. The Trial Court Act saw the largest change going from 9 UPCs in 2017-28 to 1 in 2018-19. The Trial Court Interpreter Act stayed the same at 1 UPC. Finally, the Public Employee Communications Chapter went from 2 UPCs to 1 this past fiscal year.

Year: # of UPCs

2018-19: 691
2017-28: 690
2016-17: 672
2015-16: 652
2014-15: 695
2013-14: 949 (includes 173 charges filed by same individual on agency fee issues)
2012-13: 678
2011-12: 768
2010-11: 744
2009-10: 802
2008-09: 868
2007-08: 816
2006-07: 823
2005-06: 1012
2004-05: 1126 (includes 256 identical charges filed by a single group of employees)
2003-04: 838
2002-03: 802
2001-02: 935 (includes 2 mass filings by 195 individual employees)

ALJ Proposed Decisions

In 2018-19, the eight to nine ALJs at PERB issued 54 proposed decisions. This is a decrease from the 69 proposed decisions in 2017-18. The average time it took to issue a proposed decision in 2018-19 was 174 days, compared to 133 days in 2017-18.

Year: # of Proposed Decisions (Average # of Days)

2018-19: 54 (174)
2017-18: 69 (133)
2016-17: 71 (Unknown)
2015-16: 76 (Unknown)
2014-15: 70 (Unknown)
2013-14: 76 (Unknown)
2012-13: 76 (128)
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 2018-19, the Board itself issued 92 decisions and considered 25 injunctive relief (IR) requests. The 92 decisions are an impressive 50.8% increase from the 61 decisions issued in 2017-18, while the 25 IR requests are the same as in the prior year.

Year: # of Board Decisions/IR Requests/Combined Total

2018-19: 92/25/117
2017-18: 61/25/86
2016-17: 55/29/84
2015-16: 70/18/88
2014-15: 74/19/93
2013-14: 87/25/112
2012-13: 51/17/68
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

Factfinding Requests

In fiscal year 2018-19, there were 33 requests approved for factfinding under EERA and HEERA. Last fiscal year there were also 33 requests approved. Under the MMBA, 48 factfinding requests were filed and 36 were approved. Last fiscal year there were 42 requests, of which 37 were approved. [Note: I updated the number of approved requests under EERA/HEERA on 1/29/20 based on revised data from PERB]

Year: # of Requests

EERA/HEERA