BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2419
Page 1
GOVERNOR'S VETO
AB 2419 (Garcia)
As Amended March 12, 2014
2/3 vote
PUBLIC EMPLOYEES 5-1
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|Ayes:|Bonta, Jones-Sawyer, | | |
| |Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, | | |
| |Wieckowski | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Allen | | |
| | | | |
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|ASSEMBLY: |51-22|(May 15, 2014) |SENATE: |25-10|(June 30, |
| | | | | |2014) |
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SUMMARY : Allows an agency shop arrangement to apply to
management employees in the County and City of Los Angeles.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA), which provides
a statutory framework for local government employer-employee
relations by providing a reasonable method of resolving
disputes regarding wages, hours, and other terms and
conditions of employment between local public employers and
public employee organizations.
2)Authorizes a local public agency and an employee organization,
that has been recognized as the exclusive or majority
bargaining agent, to negotiate an agency shop fee arrangement.
3)Prohibits an agency shop arrangement from applying to
management employees.
AB 2419
Page 2
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS : Under an agency shop arrangement, nonmembers of a
union are required to pay a fair share fee for representation to
the recognized employee bargaining agent for contract
negotiations, administration, and grievance processing.
According to the author, "Recognized public employee
organizations, including those that represent managerial public
employees, must carry out various duties and obligations to duly
represent their membership and to reach agreements with their
public agency employers on all matters within the scope of their
representation.
"As such, recognized employee organizations that represent
public managerial employees have the same legal obligations and
must exercise the same duty of care in representing their
membership, as those organizations that represent non-managerial
employees, and must likewise incur and absorb the many varied
costs associated with those representation duties and
obligations."
According to supporters, "These costs are particularly high for
public agencies in the County of Los Angeles and City of Los
Angeles, as they are some of the largest public agencies in the
state, and they operate outside the Public Employment Relations
Board's jurisdiction. In acknowledging these particular issues,
this bill would guarantee better representation for LA's public
managerial employees."
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti expressed his personal concern
with the bill, stating, in part, "Los Angeles' employee
relations laws and regulation are in full compliance with the
MMBA and other state laws regulating labor relations. To the
extent there are issues in Los Angeles, we should seek a
collaborative local solution rather than pursue a top-down
approach that runs afoul of local control agreements."
Previous legislation: AB 1141 (Diaz), Chapter 311, Statutes of
AB 2419
Page 3
2003, deleted confidential and supervisory employees from the
list of employees for which an agency shop union fees
arrangement does not apply.
SB 739 (Solis), Chapter 901, Statutes of 2001, authorized an
agency shop agreement to take effect either through a negotiated
agreement between a public agency and a recognized employee
organization or without a negotiated agreement if a petition is
signed by 30% of the employees in the applicable bargaining unit
and the agency shop agreement is approved by a majority of the
employees.
GOVERNOR'S VETO MESSAGE :
This bill would authorize management employees in the
County of Los Angeles and the City of Los Angeles to
establish an agency shop arrangement, an arrangement
that is not permissible under the labor law that
governs state employees.
Granting agency shop to managers, as required by this
bill, goes against sound labor-management relations
that should require a clear separation between
managers and rank and file employees.
Analysis Prepared by : Karon Green / P.E., R. & S.S. / (916)
319-3957
FN: 0004279