BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1269
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Date of Hearing: April 13, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 1269 (Portantino) - As Introduced: February 18, 2011
ÝNote: This bill has been double referred to the Assembly Public
Employees, Retirement & Social Security Committee and will be
heard as it relates to issues under its jurisdiction.]
SUBJECT : Classified employees: layoff.
SUMMARY : Specifies that reemployment of classified employees
after a layoff shall be in order of seniority, instead of the
reverse order of layoff.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Specifies for merit system school districts, that persons laid
off because of lack of work or lack of funds are eligible to
reemployment for a period of 39 months and shall be reemployed
in preference to new applicants. Specifies that employees who
take voluntary demotions or voluntary reductions in assigned
time in lieu of layoff or to remain in their present positions
rather than be reclassified or reassigned, shall be granted
the same rights as persons laid off and shall retain
eligibility to be considered for reemployment for an
additional period of up to 24 months. Specifies that
employees who take voluntary demotions or voluntary reductions
in assigned time in lieu of layoff shall be, at the option of
the employee, returned to a position in their former class or
to positions with increased assigned time as vacancies become
available, and without limitation of time, but if there is a
valid reemployment list they shall be ranked on that list in
accordance with their proper seniority. (Education Code
45298)
2)Specifies that classified employees shall be subject to layoff
for lack of work or lack of funds. Specifies that whenever a
classified employee is laid off, the order of layoff within
the class shall be determined by length of service. Specifies
the employee who has been employed the shortest time in the
class, plus higher classes, shall be laid off first.
Specifies that reemployment shall be in the reverse order of
layoff. (Education Code 45308)
AB 1269
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FISCAL EFFECT : This bill is keyed non-fiscal.
COMMENTS : This bill specifies that classified employees shall
be rehired after a layoff in the order of seniority, rather than
in reverse order. According to the author, one code section of
the Education Code requires school districts to begin
reemployment in reverse order of layoff and a separate code
section requires reemployment by seniority if the school
district is operated as a merit system. Normally, these dual
requirements do not conflict as the order of layoff was
determined by seniority. However, a district that has faced
multiple rounds of layoffs in multiple years may have difficulty
complying with these two requirements as the last person laid
off may indeed have less seniority then individuals dismissed in
the previous rounds of cuts. As an example, in the first year
an office assistant with six years of service is cut; however,
in year two, a senior office assistant with one year of
seniority as a senior office assistant and two years of
seniority as an office assistant (for a total of three years of
seniority as an office assistant) is cut. In this example, the
order of layoff and the order of seniority will differ. AB 1269
will simply clarify that seniority is the standard which should
be used in all rehire situations.
According to the Los Angeles Unified Personnel Commission,
currently Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) operates
using a reverse order reemployment policy for classified staff,
which has always created the same result as if they were using
seniority. In recent years however, a few individuals have been
identified in the layoff and reemployment process in which
reverse order does not equate to seniority. They are sponsoring
this bill to clarify the issue before it becomes a larger
problem in upcoming years. Currently LAUSD and Long Beach
Unified School District are two districts that operate using a
merit system and all similarly situated districts are affected
by these inconsistent code sections. Although LAUSD is the
first district to notice this inconsistency in the law, it could
affect other districts in the future.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Los Angeles Unified School District Personnel Commission
AB 1269
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Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Chelsea Kelley / ED. / (916) 319-2087