BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2575
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 23, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT
Roger Hern�ndez, Chair
AB 2575 (Campos) - As Introduced: February 21, 2014
SUBJECT : Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB): report.
SUMMARY : Requires the annual report from the ALRB to be made
within 45 days after the close of the fiscal year, as specified.
EXISTING LAW enacts the Alatorre-Zenovich-Dunlap-Berman
Agricultural Labor Relations Act (Act) of 1975, grants
agricultural employees the right to form and join labor
organizations and engage in collective bargaining with respect
to wages, terms of employment, and other employment conditions.
The Act creates the Agricultural Labor Relations Board and
requires it, at the close of the fiscal year, to make a written
report to the Legislature and the Governor describing the cases
it has heard and the decisions rendered, the names, salaries,
and duties of all employees and officers in its employ or under
its supervision, and accounting for moneys it has disbursed.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS : According to the author's office this bill seeks to
improve oversight of the ALRB by the Governor and the
Legislature and help ensure farm worker rights are protected
with a more timely receipt of the information in the report.
The reports have consistently been filed late past the current
due date at the close of the fiscal year. California's fiscal
year runs from July 1st through June 30th.
California's Agricultural Labor Relations Act -Agricultural
Labor Relations Board
The Act was created in 1975 to ensure peace in the fields of
California by guaranteeing justice for all agricultural workers
and stability in agricultural labor relations. The Act creates
the ALRB, which consists of five members who are appointed by
the Governor to administer and oversee the Act. The ALRB seeks
to achieve these ends by providing orderly processes for
protecting, implementing, and enforcing the respective rights
and responsibilities of employees, employers and labor
AB 2575
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organizations in their relations with each other to ensure fair
labor practices.
Each year the ALRB must file a report with the Governor and the
Legislature at the close of the fiscal year. This report
details cases it has heard, decisions it has rendered and an
accounting of funds it has disbursed, among other things, and
helps determine funding levels and priorities for the upcoming
fiscal year.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT :
The United Farm Workers state in support of this bill that the
ALRB has had a consistent backlog of cases that are decades' old
as well as individual cases that have been pending over a decade
without resolution. They also state that with a report deadline
requirement the Governor, the Legislature and the public are
kept apprised of, in a more timely manner, extreme time lapses
in case resolutions and with this measure they believe would
help address the issue.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
United Farm Workers
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Lorie Alvarez / L. & E. / (916)
319-2091