BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 872
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 8, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 872 (Dickinson) - As Amended: April 8, 2013
Policy Committee: PERSSVote:5-1
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill enacts the Safety Accountability Fairness and
Efficiency Act for Public Employees (S.A.F.E. Act for Public
Employees) which provides various rights and protections to
non-excluded state civil service employees, as specified, and
requires that any adverse action taken against a state employee
be initiated and the investigation completed within one year of
discovery of the cause for discipline.
FISCAL EFFECT
Significant costs, General Fund and special funds, in the range
of $500,000 annually statewide, for employers to deal with
shortened timeframes for adverse actions. These costs would
diminish after the existing backlog is reduced.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . According to the author, this bill enacts the SAFE
Act which makes various declarations and improvements
regarding the rights and responsibilities of state employees.
The bill disallows standardization of work relative to a given
period of time and ensures contracting-out does not happen
if/when a state employee can do the job more economically. The
author states the bill also ensures professional employees are
not put in professional jeopardy and the bill requires the
state to more efficiently process claims of adverse action.
2)Background. Existing law includes numerous provisions
defining the rights of employers and public employees in the
workplace. It also establishes collective bargaining for most
employees who are not designated manager or supervisor, where
AB 872
Page 2
terms and conditions of employment are subject to negotiations
between the employer and the employees' exclusive
representative.
Current law authorizes an appointing power to take adverse
action against an employee for specified causes, and
establishes administrative procedures for review of an adverse
action by the State Personnel Board. An adverse action is
required to commence within three years of the cause for
discipline, or in the case of fraud, embezzlement or
falsification, three years after the discovery of the
activity. Current law also provides for enhanced rights and
protections for public safety officers and firefighters,
reflecting circumstances particular to their jobs. These
include tighter timeframes for employers to commence adverse
actions.
3)Issues . This bill raises important issues, including:
a) Codifying new employee rights and other provisions that
are normally subject to collective bargaining.
b) Repeating protections and rights found elsewhere in law.
c) Granting priority to state employees in filling
permanent, overtime and on-call positions over excluded
employees and contractors. These provisions giving
priority to civil service employees could be in conflict
generally with the merit civil service system established
by Article 7 of the State Constitution.
4)Previous legislation . This bill is similar to AB 1744
(Portantino) of 2010, AB 920 (Portantino) of 2011 and AB 1655
(Dickinson) of 2012. All were held on the Suspense File of
this committee.
Analysis Prepared by : Roger Dunstan / APPR. / (916) 319-2081