BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 874 (Santiago) - Collective bargaining: Judicial Council
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|Version: June 30, 2016 |Policy Vote: P.E. & R. 3 - 2, |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Robert Ingenito |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 874 would provide collective bargaining rights to
Judicial Council employees who are exempt from state civil
service by making the Ralph C. Dills Act (Dills Act) applicable
to specified, judicial branch employees.
Fiscal
Impact:
Annual General Fund costs in the low hundreds of
thousands of dollars annually to Judicial Council to
establish and maintain labor and employee relations
functions.
To the extent that the bill results in salary or
benefits increase resulting from collective bargaining, the
bill could result in unknown increased ongoing employment
AB 874 (Santiago) Page 1 of
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costs.
Background: The California Constitution (Constitution) designates most
State employees as members of civil service. However, the
Constitution specifies that some state employees are "at will"
employees and not civil service members. As an example,
legislative employees and Judicial Council employees are
excluded under the Constitution from civil service and instead
are "at will" employees. Due to the Constitutional constraint,
the Legislature cannot convert Judicial Council employees into
members of the civil service. However, the Legislature can
statutorily grant any "at will" public employees the right to
join an employee organization and collectively bargain.
The Ralph C. Dills Act (Dills Act) allows state executive branch
employees to bargain collectively for their wages, hours, and
terms and conditions of employment. Under the Dills Act,
managers and confidential employees are not granted collective
bargaining rights. This bill would make the Dills Act
applicable to Judicial Council employees, thereby providing
Judicial Council employees the right to join an employee
organization and collectively bargain with their employer--the
Judicial Council. Under the bill, the collective bargaining
rights would extend to all Judicial Council employees except
managerial employees, confidential employees, supervisory
employees, government affairs employees, and human resources
employees.
Proposed Law:
This bill would, among other things, do the following:
Provide that the Dills Act shall apply to employees of
the Judicial Council, as specified.
Require that references to actions or decisions by the
Governor, or his or her designee, in the Dills Act, shall
mean actions or decisions by the Administrative Director of
AB 874 (Santiago) Page 2 of
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the Courts, or his or her designated representative, acting
with the authorization of chairperson of the Judicial
Council.
Prohibits PERB, when determining appropriate bargaining
units for Judicial Council employees, from including them
in a bargaining unit that includes employees other than
Judicial Council employees.
Staff
Comments: As noted previously, the Constitution exempts from
civil service officers and employees appointed or employed by
councils, commissions, or public corporations in the judicial
branch or by a court of record or officer thereof. Current law
provides collective bargaining rights for state employees of the
executive branch under the Dills Act, which establishes
processes for determining wages, hours, terms, and conditions of
employment for represented employees. The Trial Court Employment
Protection and Governance Act provides a similar regulatory
labor relations framework for trial court employees. As a result
of that legislation, trial court employees are currently
represented by SEIU.
This bill would create a framework to allow Judicial Council
employees to be represented by a union. Approximately 575
employees could be affected by this bill.
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