BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 2835 (Cooper) - Public employees: orientation and
informational programs: recognized employee organizations
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|Version: June 21, 2016 |Policy Vote: P.E. & R. 3 - 2 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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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 2835 would (1) require all public employers to
provide a specified employee orientation to all newly hired
public employees, (2) authorize the recognized employee
organization to participate in the employee orientation for
represented employees, and (3) provide that orientations for
current employees are subject to bargaining.
Fiscal
Impact: This bill would result in unknown General and special
fund costs, at a minimum in the low millions of dollars
annually, for state departments to modify their administration
functions to implement the provisions of the bill.
Proposed Law:
AB 2835 (Cooper) Page 1 of
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This bill would do all of the following:
Require public employers to provide all newly hired
public employees, as defined, a public employee orientation
within two months of the time of hiring that shall include,
but is not limited to, all of the following: (1) the
personnel and civil service policies of the public
employer, including sexual harassment, whistleblower,
violence prevention, and safety plans, (2) any applicable
civil service rules, (3) any ethics or conflict-of-interest
rules to which the public employee is subject, as
applicable, and (4) any employer-sponsored benefits
programs for which the public employee is eligible.
Provide that a public employee orientation shall meet
the following minimum requirements:
o Take place during the regular workday and at
the worksite, unless the public employer and
recognized employee organization or exclusive
representative have agreed otherwise. The scheduling
of orientations shall be agreed upon with the
recognized employee organization or exclusive
representative. All newly hired public employees
shall attend in person.
o If employees are represented by an employee
organization or exclusive representative, permit those
representatives to make a presentation of 30 minutes
that shall begin within one hour of the start of the
employer's orientation that shall include, but is not
limited to, all of the following: (1) information
about the memorandum of understanding, including the
term of the agreement, eligibility to vote on its
ratification, and how to access the contract, (2) any
union benefit for which members may be eligible, and
(3) contact information for the exclusive
representative.
AB 2835 (Cooper) Page 2 of
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If no representative from the employee organization or
exclusive representative is present during the designated
start time of the union portion of the orientation, there
is no requirement that they be afforded additional time.
If employees in different bargaining units are provided a
combined orientation, employees in each bargaining unit
shall be provided a separate space in which the union
representing each bargaining unit shall be permitted to
address its bargaining unit members during the time
allotted for the union's presentation.
In addition to other representatives, each employee
organization or exclusive representative may designate one
employee representative who may attend the orientation on
paid time.
The content of the union's presentation shall be determined
solely by the employee organization or exclusive
representative and shall not be subject to negotiation.
The presentation shall not include advocacy for or against
a candidate for political office or ballot measure.
Prior to implementing the employee orientation
requirements, the public employer shall provide at least
the level of access to, and the opportunity to make
presentations at, orientations that the public employer
allowed the employee organization or exclusive
representative as of June 1, 2016, and nothing in the bill
shall be construed as infringing upon or limiting that
access.
Require the public employer to provide to the employee
organization or exclusive representative, the job title,
department, work location, phone number, and home address
of any newly hired employee within seven days of the date
AB 2835 (Cooper) Page 3 of
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of hire and also notice of a scheduled orientation not less
than 10 days prior to the orientation, unless earlier
notice is required by an agreement with the employee
organization or exclusive representative.
The employee information to be provided by the employer
must be provided to the employee organization or exclusive
representative regardless of whether the newly hired
employee was previously employed by the public employer.
The information shall be provided in a manner consistent
with existing law restricting disclosure of information
regarding public employees and participants in the address
confidentiality program which protects personal information
of specified individuals such as law enforcement and
victims of domestic abuse.
Does not prohibit a public employer and employee
organization or exclusive representative from negotiating
an agreement providing for orientation sessions that vary
from the bill's default requirements. However, if the
public employer and the employee organization or exclusive
representative do not reach mutual agreement regarding the
orientation sessions, all of the requirements of this bill
shall apply.
Clarify that a public employer does not unlawfully
support or favor an employee organization or encourage
employees to join any organization in preference to another
as prohibited by existing law, as specified, by permitting
an employee organization or exclusive representative the
opportunity to present at employee orientations and
informational programs as required by this bill or
consistent with a negotiated agreement.
Clarify that existing law governing public
employer-employee relations, as specified, includes an
obligation to meet and confer regarding informational
programs for current state employees that are similar to
the state employee orientations required by the bill.
AB 2835 (Cooper) Page 4 of
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The establishment, scheduling, and administration of these
programs shall be negotiated by the employer and the
employee organization or exclusive representative pursuant
to the applicable law governing the public employment
relationship at issue in the same manner as other matters
within the scope of representation.
The content of any union presentation included as part of
the informational program shall be determined solely by the
employee organization or exclusive representative and shall
not be subject to negotiation.
The failure to reach agreement on these employee
informational programs shall be subject to the mediation
provisions of the chapter governing the public employment
relationship at issue, in the same manner as other matters
within the scope of representation.
Notwithstanding provisions of the California Public
Records Act exempting specified records from disclosure,
requires the public employer to provide the employee
organization or exclusive representative with a list
containing the name, job title, department, work location,
phone number, and home address of all employees in the
bargaining unit at least every 90 days, unless more
frequent or more detailed lists are required by an
agreement with the union. The information shall be
provided in a manner consistent with existing law
restricting disclosure of information regarding public
employees and participants in the address confidentiality
program which protects personal information of specified
individuals such as law enforcement and victims of domestic
abuse.
Define public employers that are subject to this bill's
provisions and defines "newly hired public employee" to
mean any employee, whether permanent, temporary, full time,
or part time, hired by a public employer, who is still
employed as of the date of the new hire orientation.
AB 2835 (Cooper) Page 5 of
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Require PERB to have jurisdiction over violations of the
requirements of this bill and provides that PERB's powers
and duties apply, as specified.
State that this bill will not result in a local mandate,
as specified, but that if the Commission on State Mandates
determines that this act contains mandated costs,
reimbursements to local agencies and school districts for
those costs shall be made pursuant to Part 7 (commencing
with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of the
Government Code.
Staff
Comments: With respect to new employee orientation, the
complexity of implementing the bill would stem from the fact
that state departments do not conduct orientations in a uniform
manner. Some larger departments likely have a formal new
employee orientation program, while some smaller departments may
just sit new employees down with the manager or HR staff and
review information at the time of hire. For state departments
that already conduct new employee orientations the requirements
in this bill may go beyond what the department currently covers.
For example, some departments may use computer-based training
to cover their policies dealing with ethics, sexual harassment,
and data security. It would seem that the bill's requirements
could be hard for state departments to coordinate each and every
time there are new employees, and would likely require
additional personnel and/or labor relations staff. Because some
state departments hire as many as 1,000 people per year, this
would bill create the possibility of ongoing and continuous
orientation-mode, which would be costly and administratively
difficult based on the requirements outlined in the bill.
An additional cost driver for many state (and local) agencies
would be instances where they have multiple locations. State
AB 2835 (Cooper) Page 6 of
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department with such field offices would include CalTrans, the
Franchise Tax Board, the Board of Equalization, the Department
of General Services and the Department of Toxic Substances
Control. It would be significantly more cost effective to
provide trainings at a central location, such as headquarters.
Training staff, not all of which are likely to be needed for the
entire duration of the training, would be able to return to
work, rather than losing time in travel. Additionally the
department may be required to pay staff at the employee
orientation overtime, travel reimbursements, and potentially
lodging in order to meet the requirement that the new employee
orientation occur at the employees' actual worksite.
All told, the state cost resulting from the bill would be
unknown, but at a minimum would exceed the low millions of
dollars annually. The cost to local government agencies, which
are larger in number but would experience the same set of
implementation challenges, would be significantly higher.
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