BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1611
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1611 (Bonta)
As Amended April 21, 2014
Majority vote
PUBLIC EMPLOYEES 5-1 APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
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|Ayes:|Bonta, Jones-Sawyer, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, |
| |Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, | |Bradford, |
| |Wieckowski | |Ian Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Eggman, Gomez, Holden, |
| | | |Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Ridley-Thomas, Weber |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Allen |Nays:|Bigelow, Donnelly, Jones, |
| | | |Linder, Wagner |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires public school employers to give the exclusive
representative of classified employees prior written notice of
their intent to make any changes to matters within the scope of
representation. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires public school employers to give reasonable prior
written notice to the exclusive representative of employees of
their intent to make any change to matters within the scope of
representation, including, but not limited to, start time and
hours of employment.
2)Specifies that the purpose of this notice is to provide a
recognized employee organization with a reasonable amount of
time to negotiate proposed changes with the employer.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the Educational Employment Relations Act (EERA)
which provides public school employees the right to form, join
and participate in the activities of employee organizations of
their choosing for the purpose of representation on all
matters of employer-employee relations.
2)Provides that employee organizations, including exclusive
AB 1611
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employee representative organizations, have the right to
represent their members in their employment relations with
public school employers.
3)Provides that the scope of representation is limited to
matters relating to wages, hours of employment, and other
terms and conditions of employment.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, minor costs, which may be reimbursable as state
mandates, to public school employers for providing the written
notices. Costs may be partially offset by avoiding employee
appeals to the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) to enforce
current non-statutory rights to receive notice.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "The Educational Employment
Relations Act (EERA) defines scope of representation, terms of
conditions for employment and outlines when a public school
employer's actions interfere with an employee's rights under
EERA. However, unlike other laws dealing with public employees
and representation, there is no requirement to provide written
notice to the exclusive representative in EERA, for the purposes
of collective bargaining.
"For example, the Myers-Milias-Brown Act (public agency
employees), the Dills Act (state employees), and the Trial Court
Employment Act all require written notice to the recognized
employee organization regarding proposed changes to matters
within the scope of representation. AB 1611 simply specifies
that school employers also have to provide the exclusive
representative written notice regarding proposed changes to
matters within the scope of representation."
The author concludes, "Despite decades of PERB decisional law
that supports the right of the exclusive representative to
receive notice, representatives of classified employees are
forced to return to PERB to enforce such rights. Providing
written notice requirements in statute will make it clear to
employers that written notice is required. This clarification
could also result in less costly and time consuming cases before
PERB to enforce notice requirements."
This bill is similar to AB 1665 (Swanson) of 2010 which died in
the Senate Public Employment and Retirement Committee.
AB 1611
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Analysis Prepared by : Karon Green / P.E., R. & S.S. / (916)
319-3957
FN: 0003243