BILL ANALYSIS
ACR 55
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
ACR 55 (Torlakson)
As Amended May 12, 2009
Majority vote
HIGHER EDUCATION 7-0 APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
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|Ayes:|Portantino, Block, Fong, |Ayes:|De Leon, Ammiano, Charles |
| |Galgiani, Huber, Ma, | |Calderon, Davis, Fuentes, |
| |Ruskin | |Hall, John A. Perez, |
| | | |Price, Skinner, Solorio, |
| | | |Torlakson, Krekorian |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+---------------------------|
| | |Nays:|Nielsen, Duvall, Harkey, |
| | | |Miller, |
| | | |Audra Strickland |
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SUMMARY : Urges the University of California (UC) to provide
initial and ongoing training and education to all supervisory
employees regarding workplace bullying, abuse, and harassment.
Specifically, this resolution :
1)Urges UC to do all of the following:
a) Provide two hours of workplace bullying, abuse, and
harassment training and education to all of its supervisory
employees by January 1, 2011, and again every two years;
b) Incorporate the workplace bullying, abuse, and
harassment training and education into the 80 hours of
training provided to all new supervisory employees,
pursuant to existing law regarding state worker supervisory
training programs;
c) Include practical examples in the training that are
aimed at instructing supervisors in the prevention of
workplace bullying, abuse, and harassment; and,
d) Ensure the training is presented by trainers or
educators with knowledge and expertise in the prevention of
workplace bullying, abuse, and harassment.
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EXISTING LAW establishes UC as a public trust and confers upon
the Regents of the UC the full powers of its organization and
government, subject only to legislative controls that may be
necessary to ensure the security of its funds and compliance
with the terms of its endowments.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, one-time costs of about $180,000 to develop the
training course content and materials and plans for the
implementation of the training. Ongoing biennial costs of about
$50,000 in consulting contracts to provide the training costs
for all supervisors and minor annual costs to provide training
for new employees.
COMMENTS : Purpose of this bill: According to the author, this
bill is designed to encourage UC to adopt a policy regarding
workplace bullying, abuse, and harassment similar to the sexual
harassment policies that most government agencies developed in
the late 1980's and early 1990's. The author believes that the
development of such a policy will help supervisors better
understand what constitutes bullying, abuse, and harassment and
how to prevent these activities from occurring.
Existing UC policy on workplace abuse: While individual UC
campuses have established policies to address workplace violence
prevention, there does not appear to be consistency among these
individual campus policies or a specific requirement for
training regarding bullying, abuse, and harassment for
supervisors. Additionally, there does not appear to be a
systemwide policy regarding bullying, abuse, and harassment
training for supervisors.
Constitutionally allowable legislative controls over UC: As
noted above, the California Constitution (Section 9 of Article
IX) establishes UC as a public trust and confers the full powers
of the UC upon the UC Regents. The Constitution establishes
that UC is subject to legislative control only to the degree
necessary to ensure the security of its funds and compliance
with the terms of its endowments. Judicial decisions have held
that there are three additional areas in which there may be
limited legislative intrusion into university operations:
authority over the appropriation of state moneys; exercise of
the general police power to provide for the public health,
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safety and welfare; and legislation on matters of general
statewide concern not involving internal university affairs.
The author notes that because of the limits of legislative power
over UC, the author hopes that this resolution will prompt the
UC to consider the adoption of a policy that ensures the
training of supervisors on the issues of bullying, abuse, and
harassment.
Analysis Prepared by : Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960
FN: 0001120