BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 616 (Bocanegra) - Local Public Employees
Amended: June 17, 2013 Policy Vote: PE&R 3-2
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 30, 2013
Consultant: Maureen Ortiz
SUSPENSE FILE.
Bill Summary: AB 616 amends the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act
relating to bargaining impasse and fact finding procedures
between local agencies and their respective employee
representation organizations.
Fiscal Impact:
Approximately $50,000 in one-time costs for rulemaking, and
$200,000 annual ongoing costs to review and process impasse
determinations (General)
The Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) will incur costs
for making impasse determinations and will need to promulgate
new regulations for those procedures. PERB will also need to
amend existing regulations with respect to extending the
timeframe for either party to declare an impasse. The $200,000
estimate results from the need for 2.25 PYs consisting of one
Attorney, one administrative assistant, and a partial (.25)
Attorney III to process, investigate, and dispose of 150 to 200
impasse determinations per year, and to handle any associated
litigation.
Background: Existing law requires the governing body of a local
public agency to meet and confer in good faith regarding wages,
hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. The
Meyers-Milias-Brown Act provides a statutory framework for local
government employer-employee relations by providing a reasonable
method of resolving disputes. 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.
AB 616 (Bocanegra)
Page 1
Existing law also 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 is 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. If a
factfinding panel is convened, each party selects one member and
the PERB selects a chairperson. The factfinding panel is
required to meet with the parties, either jointly or separately,
within10 days and may make inquiries, investigations, and hold
hearings in order to arrive at its findings and recommendations.
Employers may implement a last, best, and final offer once any
applicable mediation and factfinding procedures have been
exhausted. Employees retain the right to meet and confer each
year with the employer despite the implementation of the best
and final offer.
Additionally, existing law delegates jurisdiction over the
public 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. However, the City and County of Los Angeles is
provided a local alternative to PERB oversight through the City
of Los Angeles Employee Relations Board and the County of Los
Angeles Employee Relations Commission.
Proposed Law: AB 616 contains the following provisions:
a) Requires that when an employee organization requests that a
public agency submit the parties' differences to a factfinding
panel, that request must be made in writing.
b) Provides that if either party disputes that a genuine
impasse has been reached, the issue as to whether an impasse
exists may be submitted to PERB for resolution, and requires
PERB to notify the parties within five working days if it
determines that an impasse existed as of the date of written
notice of the declaration of the impasse.
AB 616 (Bocanegra)
Page 2
c) Maintains the existing rights of the County of Los Angeles
and the City of Los Angeles to amend its employee relations
commissions' rules and regulations providing for impasse
resolution procedures.
d) Defines "impasse" to mean that the parties to a dispute over
a matter within the scope of representation have reached a point
in meeting and negotiating at which their differences in
position is so substantial or prolonged that future meetings
would be futile.
Related Legislation: AB 537 (Bonta), pending in this committee,
makes numerous other changes to the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act
relating to impasse procedures.
Staff Comments: Under the provisions of AB 616, PERB will be
required to make impasse determinations before a matter can be
referred to a fact finding panel similar to that which PERB
currently makes under the Educational Employment Relations Act
(EERA). PERB must make a determination and notify the parties
within 5 days after receipt of the request. Although the number
of requests that will be received annually is not known, last
year PERB received approximately 200 requests to make impasse
determinations under the EERA.