BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 920
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Date of Hearing: April 13, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 920 (Portantino) - As Introduced: February 18, 2011
Policy Committee: PERS Vote:4-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
Enacts the Public Employees' Bill of Rights Act (PEBRA) which
provides various rights and protections to non-excluded state
civil service employees and requires that any adverse action
taken against a state employee be initiated and the
investigation completed within one year of the cause for
discipline. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires that all adverse actions be completed within one year
from the act that is the cause of the discipline. Currently,
such actions must be started within three years of the cause
of the discipline or, in the case of fraud, embezzlement, or
falsification of records, from the discovery.
2)Specifies that a state civil service employee will have
priority in filling permanent, overtime, and on-call positions
over excluded employees and contractors.
3)Prohibits an employee's work from being standardized in
relation to a given period of time and prohibits an employee
from being compelled to perform extra work - including work
caused by vacancies, furloughs, or layoffs - without fair
compensation.
4)Establishes specific rights for professionally licensed state
employees, including a prohibition against an unlicensed
supervisor infringing on the judgment of a licensed employee
with regard to his or her work product.
5)States that a grievance filed by an employee not responded to
within the timeframes established by the governing MOU is
resolved in favor of the employee.
AB 920
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FISCAL EFFECT
1)Significant costs, in the range of $500,000 annually
statewide, for employers to deal with shortened timeframes for
adverse actions.
2)Unknown, potentially significant losses to the extent the bill
precludes the state from launching investigations of
embezzlement in cases where discovery occurs after the new
one-year limitation.
3)Several of the provisions, including those giving civil
service employees priority in filling overtime and on-call
positions, and those prohibiting employers from compelling
employees to perform extra work without fair compensation,
could be interpreted in ways that raise wage and overtime
costs significantly. Actual costs are unknown, but if these
provisions were to raise overall compensation costs by one
percent, the state's annual wage costs would increase $100
million.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale. According to the findings and declarations
contained in the bill, the purpose of the legislation is to
"?inform public employees of their rights and terms of
employment, and to inspire dedicated service and promote
harmonious personnel relations between public employees and
their employer."
2)Background. Existing law includes numerous provisions
defining the rights of employers and public employees in the
workplace. It also establishes collective bargaining for most
non-managerial employees, where terms and conditions of
employment are subject to negotiations between the employer
and the employees' exclusive representative.
Current law authorizes an appointing power to take adverse
action against an employee for specified causes, and
establishes administrative procedures for review of an adverse
action by the State Personnel Board. An adverse action is
required to commence within three years of the cause for
discipline, or in the case of fraud, embezzlement or
falsification, three years after the discovery of the
AB 920
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activity. Current law also provides for enhanced rights and
protections for public safety officers and firefighters,
reflecting circumstances particular to their jobs. These
include tighter timeframes for employers to commence adverse
actions.
3)Issues . This bill raises important issues, including:
a) Places in law new employee rights and other
provisions that are normally subject to collective
bargaining.
b) Repeats protections and rights found elsewhere in
law.
c) Shortens the period for beginning an adverse action
from three years to one year.
d) Shortens the period for commencing an adverse action
based on fraud, embezzlement, or the falsification of
records, from three years dating from the discovery of
the misconduct to one year dating from when the
misconduct occurred . For these offenses, the difference
is crucial since serious misconduct relating to fraud or
embezzlement is often not discovered immediately, but
rather through audits and financial reviews. The
elimination of the current three-years from time of
discovery for fraud or embezzlement cases would reduce
the chances for the state to bring an adverse action on
these serious cases.
e) Grants priority to state employees in filling
permanent, overtime and on-call positions over excluded
employees and contractors. These provisions giving
priority to civil service employees appear to conflict
generally with the merit civil service system established
by Article 7of the State Constitution.
4)Previous legislation . This bill is similar to AB 1744
(Portantino) of last year which was held on the Suspense File
of this committee.
Analysis Prepared by : Roger Dunstan / APPR. / (916) 319-2081