BILL ANALYSIS Ó
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2294|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2294
Author: Gomez (D)
Amended: 6/15/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 7-2, 6/8/16
AYES: Liu, Block, Hancock, Leyva, Mendoza, Monning, Pan
NOES: Huff, Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 5-2, 8/11/16
AYES: Lara, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza
NOES: Bates, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 51-26, 5/12/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: The California State University: employees: leaves
of absence without loss of compensation
SOURCE: California Faculty Association
DIGEST: 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.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Establishes the CSU governed by the Board of Trustees
AB 2294
Page 2
(Trustees) and provides that that the Trustees are responsible
for the rule of government of their appointees and employees.
(Education Code § 89500, et seq.)
2)Establishes the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations
Act (HEERA) to provide a statutory framework to regulate labor
relations at the University of California, the CSU, and
Hastings College of Law and their employees and provides the
Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) with the authority to
enforce HEERA. (Government Code § 3560-3599)
3)Requires the governing board of a school district to grant any
employee, upon request, 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)
4)Requires the governing board of a community college district
to grant any employee, upon request, 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 § 87768.5)
This bill:
1)Requires the CSU Trustees to grant any employee, upon a
request that provides at least 30 days of notice before
commencement, a leave of absence without loss of compensation
for the purpose of enabling the employee to serve as an
elected officer of any CSU campus public employee organization
or any statewide or national public employee organization with
AB 2294
Page 3
which the university campus organization is affiliated.
2)Specifies that when possible, an employee shall provide a
notice of at least 30 days before the start of the academic
term during which the leave will occur.
3)Provides that the leave shall include, but is not limited to,
absence for purposes of attendance by the employee at meetings
of the organization, as specified.
4)Provides that compensation during the leave shall include
retirement fund contributions required of the employer,
including any amount necessary to pay any unfunded liability
cost for the retirement plan.
5)Provides that the employee shall earn full service credit
during the leave of absence and shall pay member contributions
as prescribed, and provides that the maximum amount of the
service credit earned shall not exceed 12 calendar years.
6)Provides that any employee who serves as a full-time officer
of a public employee organization shall not be eligible for
disability benefits under the Public Employees' Retirement
System while on the leave of absence.
7)Provides that following payment of the employee for the leave
of absence, the CSU or campus 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. Requires reimbursement by the employee organization
to be made within 10 days after its receipt of the
certification of payment of compensation to the employee.
8)Provides that the leave of absence without loss of
compensation provided for by this bill is in addition to the
released time without loss of compensation granted to
representatives of an exclusive representative by Section 3569
of the Government Code.
AB 2294
Page 4
Comments
Consistency with K-12 school districts and community colleges.
Current law requires school districts and the community colleges
to grant employees a leave of absence without loss of
compensation to serve as elected officers of a union. The
districts are then reimbursed by the employee organization of
which the employee is an elected officer for all compensation
paid to the employee while on leave, including any retirement
costs. 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.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, 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 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.
Additionally, 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)
AB 2294
Page 5
SUPPORT: (Verified8/12/16)
California Faculty Association (source)
California Labor Federation
California State University Employees Union
California Teachers Association
Service Employees International Union
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/12/16)
California State University
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: According to the author's office, "in the
state's K-12 and community college systems, employees are
routinely granted leaves of absence without loss of pay to
enable the employee to serve as an elected officer of a union
with which his or her labor union is affiliated. Education Code
Sections 44987 (K-12) and 87768.5 (community colleges) specify
that compensation during the leave includes retirement costs
while on the leave of absence. A recent review of the
California Education Code revealed that CSU faculty lack
statutory parity for identical leaves of absence." The author
argues that legislation is necessary to ensure that CSU
employees have the right to take leave time to participate in
leadership roles with their union affiliates. The author's
office indicates that CSU faculty participation in a union
elected leadership position is subject to the discretion of the
CSU, under relevant memorandums of understanding (MOUs) and
local bargaining agreements.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION: The CSU opposes this bill, arguing
that the measure sidesteps the collective bargaining process
where union leave requests are a negotiated term of employment
and therefore would impact 13 collective bargaining units. This
would hinder the CSU's ability to consider these leave requests
in the context of its impact on campus operations and
instruction. For example, CSU notes that under the current
faculty agreement there is a notice requirement and an
opportunity to discuss the impact of the release time on
AB 2294
Page 6
academic departments.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 51-26, 5/12/16
AYES: Alejo, Arambula, Atkins, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brown,
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh,
Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia,
Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Roger Hernández,
Holden, Irwin, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, McCarty, Medina,
Mullin, Nazarian, O'Donnell, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Santiago, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Weber, Williams,
Wood, Rendon
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, Waldron, Wilk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Burke, Chávez, Jones-Sawyer
Prepared by:Lenin DelCastillo / ED. / (916) 651-4105
8/15/16 19:39:48
**** END ****