BILL ANALYSIS
AB 649
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Date of Hearing: June 21, 2000
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC EMPLOYEES, RETIREMENT AND SOCIAL
SECURITY
Lou Correa, Chair
AB 649 (Machado and Strom-Martin) - As Amended: June 8, 2000
SUBJECT : State employees.
SUMMARY : Makes various changes in the state negotiated
Memoranda of Understanding contracts (MOUs) for 1999-2001.
These MOU contracts need technical clean-up. Also included are
two provisions reflecting other negotiated agreements.
Specifically, this bill contains the following key provisions:
1)Conforms drug testing policy with the Bargaining Unit 11 (BU
11) collective bargaining agreement.
2)Includes managers and supervisors in safety retirement
inadvertently omitted and includes only those units that
agreed to this provision in collective bargaining.
3)Adds benefit contracts covering excluded employees to those
exempt from Department of General Services (DGS) review.
4)Appropriates funding to the Rural Health Subsidy Program.
5)Conforms employee health benefit eligibility for BU 19 members
which was inadvertently omitted in the ratifying legislation
last year.
6)Allows State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) members who
become State employees to stay in the STRS, instead of joining
the Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS).
7)Permits Security Officers employed by the State Department of
Justice (DOJ) to have PERS State Peace Officer/Firefighter
(POFF) retirement benefits.
8)Double-joins this bill to AB 1441 (Lempert), which is
currently awaiting the Governor's signature.
9)Declares that this bill is an urgency measure to take effect
immediately.
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FISCAL EFFECT : The bill appropriates $65,414,288 from the
General Fund and various special funds for allocation for
various state employee benefits or programs, including state
employee compensation, the Work and Family Fund, and the Rural
Area Health Subsidy Program.
COMMENTS :
1)State BU 11 (Engineering and Scientific Technician,
represented by the California State Employee Association) MOU,
which took effect July 1, 1999, provides for an election of
remedies/forums when employees are disciplined or rejected on
probation for positive drug test results.
Existing law does not allow the employee to choose between a
neutral third party grievance procedure or an appeal to the
SPB. In addition, statutory language is needed to make it
clear that when an employee elects a third party, his/her
access to court review is under the law governing the
arbitration process, and not under the law governing State
Personnel Board appeals.
This bill amends the Government Code and the Code of Civil
Procedure to conform with the Unit 11 collective bargaining
agreement.
The SPB states in opposition that, "This bill would, among other
things, make major changes in the way appeals from adverse
actions and rejections during probation involving civil
service employees in BU 11 (engineering and scientific
technicians) are adjudicated. Additionally, SPB states that
they are "opposed to the provisions of the bill that infringe
on the board's constitutional obligations to review
disciplinary actions and rejections during probation taken
against employees in BU 11 elating to positive drug test
results. The California Constitution mandates that the board
administer and enforce the merit aspects of the state civil
service, including reviewing disciplinary actions against
state employees."
2)Existing law provides that DPA administers safety retirement
benefits for State employees through the collective bargaining
process, when this provision was added to law. The inclusion
of managers and supervisors in the safety requirement was
inadvertently omitted. In addition, not all bargaining units
AB 649
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agreed to the DPA process of inclusion of managers and
supervisors in safety retirement.
This bill amends the Government Code (Section 19816.20 and
Section 19816.20 (d)) to include excluded employees in the
definition of "state employees" who are not members of civil
service and amend Section 20405.1 to cover only those units
that agreed to the provision in collective bargaining.
3)Existing Public Contract Code was previously amended to
exclude DPA from the DGS review of contracts for benefits,
health and safety, and training services for those items
bargained in an MOU. Contracts covering "excluded employees"
(managers and supervisors), however, are not exempt from DGS
review.
This bill amends the Public Contract Code (Section 10295.4) to
extend the exclusion to cover the benefit contracts covering
"excluded employees."
4)Existing law, pursuant to SB 514 (Chesbro), Chapter 743,
Statutes of 1999, authorized a rural health subsidy for state
employees and retirees who live in areas of the State where
there is no health maintenance organization (HMO) available.
Sufficient monies were not appropriated to the Work and Family
Program and the Rural Health Subsidy Program pursuant to SB
339 (Burton), Chapter 776, Statutes of 1999.
This bill appropriates money to fully fund the Employee
Compensation Package, fulfilling the State's obligations made
in the MOUs negotiated with the 21 bargaining units.
This is a technical change that appropriates the monies that
were agreed to in bargaining.
5)As the result of an MOU agreed to in 1999, the employee
eligibility for representation in BU 19 (Health and Social
Services Professionals, represented by AFSCME) was changed to
be consistent with all other State employees. When the
legislation was passed that ratified the MOU for BU 19, the
change in employee eligibility was inadvertently omitted.
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This bill would amend Government Code Section 22754.2 to remove
Subsection 4, which defines employee eligibility for BU 19.
6)Existing CalSTRS law provides, pursuant to 1997 legislation,
that a CalSTRS member who subsequently was employed by the
state Community Colleges in a position requiring CalPERS
membership may elect to remain in CalSTRS.
This bill:
a) Allows any certificated teacher member of CalSTRS who
becomes employed by the state to stay in CalSTRS instead of
joining CalPERS.
b) Allows current State employees, who were vested member
of CalSTRS and became mandatory members of the CalPERS
Second Tier plan, to elect to return to CalSTRS membership.
c) Apply only to employees who were hired after June 30,
1991 and before the date the First Tier plan became
effective for new employees represented by this union.
d) Provides that employees hired on and after January 1,
2000 will have the option of membership under the Second
Tier or the First Tier plan.
5)Existing CalPERS law specifically provides that security
officers of DOJ shall be "state miscellaneous" members of
CalPERS. "State miscellaneous" members of CalPERS receive a
retirement benefit based on thej"2% @ age 55" formula, and are
covered by "Ordinary Disability Retirement" benefits.
This bill provides that security officers of DOJ shall be "state
POFF" members of PERS, receiving a retirement benefit based on
the "3% @ age 50" formula, and are covered by "Industrial
Disability Retirement" benefits.
According to DPA "Initially the Security Officer, DOJ was not
included in POFF because, when the class was established, the
existing Attorney General did not want them included.
However, over the past ten to 12 years, their duties have
significantly been expanded, necessitating recruitment of a
more highly trained officer. The DOJ supports the inclusion
of the Security Officer into the POFF and we (DPA) agreed to
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including them in bargaining."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Department of Personnel Administration (Sponsor)
Department of Justice
Opposition
State Personnel Board
Analysis Prepared by : Karon Green / P.E., R. & S.S. /
(916)319-3957