BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 2294 (Gomez) - The California State University: employees:
leaves of absence without loss of compensation
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|Version: June 15, 2016 |Policy Vote: ED. 7 - 2 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill requires the California State University
(CSU) to grant an employee a leave of absence without loss of
compensation to serve as an elected officer of any CSU campus
public employee organization.
Fiscal
Impact:
Though this bill requires the employment organization to
reimburse the CSU salary and benefits, including the CSU
retirement fund contribution, this bill could result in
one-time costs to recruit, hire, or train replacement
employees to fill in while the employee is on a leave of
AB 2294 (Gomez) Page 1 of
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absence. In some cases the replacement employee could be
compensated less than the employee on leave in which case any
upfront recruiting and training costs could be recovered and
ongoing savings could be achieved. However, to the extent the
CSU is unable to fill the temporary vacancy with an employee
at a lower compensation the CSU may incur some ongoing costs
to pay the employee's compensation while on leave, in addition
to the one-time costs.
According to the CSU's website there are 47,000 faculty and
staff employed at the university. CSU indicates that the
California Faculty Association is currently using two or three
of the 16 leaves available they have in their collective
bargaining agreements. To the extent this bill encourages
additional use of leaves and five employees go on a leave of
absence in a year resulting in costs of $10,000 per employee
to recruit a replacement, statewide costs could be about
$50,000. However, the effect of this bill on the number of
employees taking a leave of absence in the future is unknown.
(General Fund)
Background: Existing law requires the governing board of a school district
and the governing board of a community college district to grant
any employee, upon a request that provides a notice of at least
30 days, a leave of absence without loss of compensation for the
purpose of enabling the employee to serve as an elected officer
of any local school district public employee organization or any
statewide or national public employee organization with which
the local organization is affiliated. Provides that following
the district's payment of the employee for the leave of absence,
the district shall be reimbursed by the employee organization of
which the employee is an elected officer for all compensation
paid the employee on account of the leave. (Education Code §
44987 and 87768.5)
While each of the CSU's 13 bargaining groups have agreements
that provide some level of leave for academic employees to work
on behalf of their union, the amounts may vary and are not
specified in statute. According to the author, this bill is
necessary to ensure that CSU employees have the right to take
leave time to participate in leadership roles with their union
affiliates.
AB 2294 (Gomez) Page 2 of
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Proposed Law:
This bill requires the CSU to grant an employee, upon request,
a leave of absence without loss of compensation so that he or
she may serve as an elected officer of any CSU campus public
employee organization, or statewide or national public employee
organization with which the university campus organization is
affiliated.
In addition, this bill:
Requires the employee to provide the request at least 30 days
before the start of the academic term, when possible.
Provides that the leave includes, but is not limited to,
absence for an employee to attend meetings of the organization
on which the employee serves as an officer.
Compensation during the leave must include:
o Retirement fund contributions required of the
university as employer, including the amount necessary to
pay any unfunded liability cost for the retirement plan.
o Full service credit to be earned, up to 12 years, by
the employee during the leave of absence and the employee
must pay member contributions.
Provides that any employee who serves as a full-time officer
of a public employee organization is prohibited from being
eligible for disability benefits under the Public Employees'
Retirement System while on the leave of absence.
Provides that following the university's payment of the leave
of absence for the employee, it must be reimbursed by the
employee organization of which the employee is an elected
officer for all compensation the employee for the leave.
AB 2294 (Gomez) Page 3 of
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Reimbursement by the employee organization is required to be
made within 10 days after its receipt of the certification of
payment of compensation to the employee.
Provides that the leave of absence without loss of
compensation is in addition to the released time without loss
of compensation to the representatives of an exclusive
representative, as specified.
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