BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 874| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- THIRD READING Bill No: AB 874 Author: Santiago (D), et al. Amended: 8/15/16 in Senate Vote: 21 SENATE PUBLIC EMP. & RET. COMMITTEE: 3-2, 4/25/16 AYES: Pan, Beall, Hall NOES: Morrell, Moorlach SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: 5-2, 6/21/16 AYES: Jackson, Hertzberg, Leno, Monning, Wieckowski NOES: Moorlach, Anderson SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 5-2, 8/11/16 AYES: Lara, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza NOES: Bates, Nielsen ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 52-25, 6/2/15 - See last page for vote SUBJECT: Collective bargaining: Judicial Council SOURCE: Service Employees International Union, Local 1000 DIGEST: This bill provides 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. ANALYSIS: Existing law: 1)Establishes, in the California Constitution, the Judicial Council which has responsibility to survey judicial business; AB 874 Page 2 study the operation of the courts; adopt rules not inconsistent with statute in the areas of court administration, practice, and procedure; and make recommendations to the courts, the Governor, and the Legislature. 2)Exempts, in the California Constitution, officers and employees appointed or employed by councils, commissions or public corporations in the judicial branch or by a court of record or officer of the courts from civil service. 3)Provides, under the Dills Act, collective bargaining for state employees of the executive branch which establishes a process for determining wages, hours and terms and conditions of employment for represented employees. Managerial, supervisory, and confidential employees are excluded from bargaining rights. 4)Regulates labor relations between trial courts and trial court employees under the Trial Court Employment Protection and Governance Act (TCEPGA). 5)Establishes the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), a quasi-judicial administrative agency, to administer the collective bargaining statutes covering public employees including school, college, state, local agency, and trial court employees. 6)Requires the Governor and the recognized state employee organizations to meet and confer in good faith regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment and, if an agreement is reached, jointly prepare a written memorandum of understanding which shall be presented, when appropriate, to the Legislature for determination. This bill: 1)Provides that the Dills Act shall apply to employees of the Judicial Council, as specified. 2)Defines "state employee" to include any employee of the Judicial Council except for managerial, supervisory, and AB 874 Page 3 confidential employees, as specified. Also provides that the definition of "state employee" does not include any judicial officer or employee of the Supreme Court, the courts of appeal, or the Habeas Corpus Resource Center. 3)Defines "employer", for purposes of bargaining or meeting and conferring in good faith, as the Administrative Director of the Courts, or his or her designated representatives, acting with the authorization of the chairperson of the Judicial Council. 4)Requires 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 the Courts, or his or her designated representative, acting with the authorization of the chairperson of the Judicial Council. 5)Provides that provisions of the Dills Act governing legislative review and approval of state Memoranda of Understanding shall not apply to the Judicial Council and its employees. 6)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. 7)Gives the Judicial Council has the authority and discretion to designate state employee positions as excluded positions provided that managerial, supervisory, confidential, and excluded positions not included in bargaining units under this provision shall not exceed one third of the total authorized Judicial Council positions as stated in the Department of Finance Salaries and Wages Supplement. 8)Provides that the designation of the excluded positions under this section shall not be subject to review by PERB. Background Although TCEPGA provides collective bargaining rights to AB 874 Page 4 California trial court employees, their Judicial Council colleagues doing similar work do not have collective bargaining rights because they are constitutionally exempt from state civil service and thus, not covered by the Dills Act which provides collective bargaining rights to state employees. Since Judicial Council employees are state employees, the Dills Act may be an appropriate framework for providing collective bargaining rights. FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.:YesLocal: No According to the Senate Appropriations Committee: 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 costs. SUPPORT: (Verified8/15/16) Service Employees International Union, Local 1000 (source) American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees California Labor Federation California State Council of the Service Employees International Union OPPOSITION: (Verified8/12/16) AB 874 Page 5 None received ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: According to the sponsor, "since Judicial Council employees are expressly exempt from state civil service rules by Article 7 Section 4(b) of the California Constitution, the Dills Act does not confer bargaining rights for Judicial Council employees. "As a result, Judicial Council employees are not represented by a union, but would like to be. The Government Code cannot be amended to make Judicial Council employees civil service employees due to the state's constitutional prohibition. However, the Dills Act can be amended to confer bargaining rights to Judicial Council employees to allow them union representation." ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 52-25, 6/2/15 AYES: Alejo, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gray, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Nazarian, O'Donnell, Perea, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Waldron, Weber, Williams, Wood, Atkins NOES: Achadjian, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Brough, Chang, Dahle, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Jones, Kim, Lackey, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, Melendez, Obernolte, Olsen, Patterson, Steinorth, Wagner, Wilk NO VOTE RECORDED: Brown, Chávez, Gordon Prepared by:Glenn Miles / P.E. & R. / (916) 651-1519 8/15/16 20:33:18 **** END **** AB 874 Page 6