BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 616
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 24, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC EMPLOYEES, RETIREMENT AND SOCIAL
SECURITY
Rob Bonta, Chair
AB 616 (Bocanegra) - As Amended: March 19, 2013
SUBJECT : Local public employee organizations: dispute:
factfinding panel.
SUMMARY : Makes changes to the Meyers-Milas-Brown Act (MMBA)
with respect to impasse procedures and factfinding and the
process for determining the appropriateness of a bargaining
unit, placing that authority with the Public Employment
Relations Board (PERB). Specifically, this bill :
1)Extends the period of time that an employee organization has
to request fact finding in disputes not submitted to mediation
from 30 days to 60 days following the date either party
provided the other with written notice of a declaration of
impasse.
2)Provides that if either party disputes that a genuine impasse
has been reached, it may submit that dispute to PERB for
resolution. If PERB determines that a genuine impasse exists,
the parties' differences are subject to the remainder of the
fact finding procedures of the MMBA.
3)Defines "impasse" for purposes of these provisions to mean
that the parties to a dispute over a matter within the scope
of collective bargaining have reached a point that future
meetings to resolve the issue would be futile.
4)Allows the employee relations commissions for the County and
City of Los Angeles to maintain and amend existing impasse
rules and regulations as they deem necessary consistent with
the policies contained in the MMBA.
5)Grants PERB the authority to make unit determinations in
accordance with the rules and regulations it has adopted in
accordance with the MMBA.
6)Specifies the criteria PERB is required to take into
consideration when determining an appropriate unit.
AB 616
Page 2
7)Specifies that an appropriate group of skilled crafts
employees has the right to be in a separate bargaining unit
based on occupation.
8)Specifies that "skilled crafts employees" includes, but is not
limited to, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, painters, and
operating engineers.
9)Establishes a rebuttable presumption that professional and
nonprofessional employees should not be included in the same
bargaining unit.
10)Authorizes PERB, rather than the public agency, to adopt
rules and regulations providing for the designation of
management and confidential employees of the public agency and
restricting those employees from representing any employee
organization that represents other employees of the public
agency on collective bargaining matters.
EXISTING LAW , as established by the MMBA:
1)Contains various provisions intended to promote full
communication between public employers and their employees by
providing a reasonable method of resolving disputes regarding
wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment
between public employers and public employee organizations.
2)Provides that if, after a reasonable amount of time,
representatives of the public agency and the employee
organization fail to reach agreement, the two parties may
mutually agree on the appointment of a mediator and equally
share the cost.
3)Authorizes an employee organization to request that the
parties' differences be submitted to a factfinding panel not
sooner than 30 days, but not more than 45 days, following the
appointment of a mediator or entering into a mediation
process. If the dispute was not submitted to mediation, an
employee organization may request that the parties'
differences be submitted to a factfinding panel not later than
30 days following the date either party provided the other
with written notice of a declaration of impasse.
4)Allows an employer to implement their last, best and final
offer once any applicable mediation and fact-finding
AB 616
Page 3
procedures have been exhausted and, despite the implementation
of the best and final offer, allows a recognized employee
organization the right each year to meet and confer.
5)Authorizes a local public agency to adopt reasonable rules and
regulations after consultation in good faith with
representatives of an employee organization or organizations
for the administration of employer-employee relations under
the MMBA. This includes provisions for verifying that an
organization does in fact represent employees of the
organization, recognition of employee organizations, and
exclusive recognition of employee organizations.
6)Authorizes a public agency to adopt reasonable rules and
regulations providing for the designation of management and
confidential employees of the public agency and restricting
those employees from representing any employee organization
that represents other employees of the public agency on
matters within the scope of representation.
7)Delegates jurisdiction over the employer-employee relationship
to PERB and charges PERB with resolving disputes and enforcing
the statutory duties and rights of local public agency
employers and employee organizations.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "Typically, local public
agencies, such as cities and counties, delegate the
responsibility for making such unit determinations to their
chief executive officer or general manager. Although appropriate
unit determinations are of critical importance in affording
public employees the fullest freedom to exercise their right to
join and be represented by employee organizations of their own
choosing, current law allows a clearly interested party, the
public employer, to decide which job classifications will be
included in the unit and which will not."
"In contrast, the other major California labor-law statutes,
such as the Educational Employment Relations Act (EERA), the
State Employer-Employee Relations Act (Ralph M. Dills Act) and
the Higher Education Employment Relations Act (HEERA), as well
as the National Labor Relations Act (a source of guidance to
interpreting the California statutes), unit determinations are
made by an expert and impartial administrative agency, such as
AB 616
Page 4
the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) and the National
Labor Relations Board (NLRB), respectively."
With respect to the impasse procedures, the author states,
"?when a public employer and a public employee organization
reach an impasse in collective bargaining and the dispute has
not been submitted to voluntary mediation, the employee
organization may request that the parties' differences be
submitted to a factfinding panel not later than 30 days
following the date that either party provided the other with a
written notice of a declaration of impasse. PERB has
interpreted this provision, in its regulations and its
administrative rulings, to require the employee organization to
make this request within 30 days of a declaration of impasse,
without regard to whether the employer and union have in fact
reached a genuine impasse in the negotiations. This loophole
could allow a public employer to evade its duty to bargain in
good faith by declaring impasse prematurely or in bad faith."
Opponents state, "On the issue of recognition of employee
representative and unit determination and modification, we
believe that counties and their employees know best how these
matter should be decided. Local rules specify how a unit will
be formed or modified and when and how a union will be
recognized. We fail to see how PERB, a centralized body, is
better positioned to make determinations about which employees
belong together in a bargaining unit in counties as different as
Alpine and San Diego. Further, we do not see how PERB could
handle this increased workload without significant staff
increases which seem unlikely to be provided in the current
budget climate. Delays in making these decisions will lead to
uncertainty and increased labor friction."
On the issue of extending the time from 30 to 60 days for the
submission of differences to a factfinding panel, opponents
believe this will do nothing more than lengthen the negotiating
period to the benefit of the party interested in maintaining the
status quo.
Opponents conclude, "Finally, the shift in AB 616 that allows
PERB to designate management and confidential employees strips
counties of their fundamental right to make personnel decisions.
Management and confidential employees engage in work which
makes them privy to the decision-making process of a county and
the information management and confidential employees have
AB 616
Page 5
access to can affect labor relations. For this reason it is
crucial and inherent in the powers and duties of a county to
retain the prerogative to designate which employees are
management and confidential based on the work they perform
locally."
The Committee is informed that the author will be offering
amendments in Committee that retain Section 1 of the bill
dealing with impasse procedures and delete all other provisions
of the bill.
PRIOR LEGISLATION :
AB 1606 (Perea), Chapter 314, Statutes of 2012, authorized an
employee organization to request that the parties' differences
be submitted to a fact-finding panel not sooner than 30 days,
but not more than 45 days, following the appointment of a
mediator or entering into a mediation process. If the dispute
was not submitted to mediation, an employee organization may
request that the parties' differences be submitted to a
factfinding panel not later than 30 days following the date
either party provided the other with written notice of a
declaration of impasse.
AB 646 (Atkins), Chapter 680, Statutes of 2011, allowed local
public employee organizations to request factfinding if a
mediator is unable to reach a settlement within 30 days of
appointment, defines certain responsibilities of the factfinding
panel and interested parties, and made specified exemptions from
these provisions.
AB 195 (Hernández), Chapter 271, Statutes of 2011, specified
that a public agency is prohibited from, among other things,
imposing reprisals on or discriminating against employees
because of their exercise of rights guaranteed by the act, and
specified that knowingly providing a recognized employee
organization with inaccurate information regarding the financial
resources of the public employer constituted a refusal or
failure to meet and negotiate in good faith. The bill also
declared that the provisions were intended to be technical and
clarify of existing law.
AB 1156 (Nunez), Chapter 215, Statutes of 2003, clarified the
role of PERB, relative to its jurisdiction in resolving disputes
and enforcing the statutory duties and rights of local public
AB 616
Page 6
agency employers and employees under the MMBA, to include the
power to order elections, conduct any election it orders and
adopt rules to apply in areas where a public agency has no rule.
The bill also empowered employees of a local public agency and
employee organization to challenge a rule or regulation of a
public agency in violation of MMBA.
AB 1281 (Cedillo), Chapter 790, Statutes of 2001, required local
agencies to recognize an employee organization as the exclusive
representative of the employees in an appropriate unit based
upon a signed petition, authorization cards, or union membership
cards showing that a majority of the employees desire such
recognition.
SB 739 (Solis), Chapter 901, Statutes of 2000, revised MMBA to
transfer jurisdiction for the resolution of unfair labor
practice charges and representation disputes to PERB.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Coalition of California Utility Employees
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Opposition
California Association of Sanitation Agencies
California State Association of Counties
County of Lassen
County of Sonoma Board of Supervisors
Butte County boards of Supervisors
League of California Cities
Rural County Representatives of California
Analysis Prepared by : Karon Green / P.E., R. & S.S. / (916)
319-3957