BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1181 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 1181 (Gray) As Amended April 3, 2013 Majority vote PUBLIC EMPLOYEES 5-2 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Bonta, Jones-Sawyer, | | | | |Mullin, Rendon, | | | | |Wieckowski | | | | | | | | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| |Nays:|Allen, Harkey | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY : Expands provisions governing a local public agencies' requirement to provide compensated time off for representatives of employee organization to participate in specified employee organization activities. Specifically, this bill : 1)Requires a local public agency to give reasonable compensated time off to representatives of employee organizations to participate in any of the following activities: a) Formally meeting and conferring with representatives of the public agency on matters within the scope of representation. b) Testifying or representing the employee organization in conferences, hearings, or other proceedings before the Public Employment Relations Board or its agent in matters relating to a charge filed by the employee organization against the public agency. c) Testifying or representing the employee organization in other matters in furtherance of the employee organization's right to represent members in employment relations, including personnel and merit commission hearings. 2)Requires the employee organization to provide reasonable notification to the employer when a leave of absence is requested. AB 1181 Page 2 EXISTING LAW : 1)Establishes the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA), which provides a statutory framework for local government employer-employee relations. 2)Requires that local public agencies allow a reasonable number of employee organization representatives compensated reasonable time off to attend formal negotiations on matters within the scope of representation. FISCAL EFFECT : None. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the Legislative Counsel. COMMENTS : According to the author, "AB 1181 seeks to ensure that representatives of employee organization, who are employed by a public agency employer, will have sufficient time off to enable them to participate in matters critical to the organization's mission of representing members in employee relations matters." Supporters state, "Local government employees who testify at or represent their union in grievance adjustment meetings, arbitrations, legislative hearing and proceedings before the Public Employment Relations Board do not have a clear statutory right to release time to perform these duties. Instead, they must often take unpaid time off from work in order to take part in these matters. Organizational representatives who seek to carry out the union's mission of enforcing collective bargaining agreements and advocating for their membership must therefore do so at personal sacrifice and cost. The unintended but inevitable result of this omission is that employee organizations are dissuaded from enforcing the rights of the union and of workers." The author concludes, "AB 1181 would correct this omission by providing representatives of public agency employee organizations the right to reasonable time off to participate in grievance adjustment meetings, grievance arbitrations, hearing before the Public Employment Relations Board, and personnel and merit commission hearings." Opponents state, "It is crucial that special districts be able to maintain local control when granting release time to AB 1181 Page 3 employees. As you may know, many special districts function with minimal staff, and depleting a portion of its workforce for a period of time could prevent it from effectively delivering services." Opponents conclude that this issue is better decided at the local level since paid leave of absence for these types of activities is, and should remain, a part of the collective bargaining process. Analysis Prepared by : Karon Green / P.E., R. & S.S. / (916) 319-3957 FN: 0000428