BILL ANALYSIS
AB 649
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 649 (Machado)
As Amended June 8, 2000
2/3 vote. Urgency
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|ASSEMBLY: |65-10|(May 20, 1999) |SENATE: |28-8 |(June 15, 2000) |
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|COMMITTEE VOTE: |6-0 |(June 21, 2000) |RECOMMENDATION: |Concur |
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Original Committee Reference: L. & E.
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.
The Senate amendments delete the Assembly version of this bill, and
instead:
1)Conform drug testing policy with the Bargaining Unit 11 (BU 11)
collective bargaining agreement.
2)Include managers and supervisors in safety retirement
inadvertently omitted and include only those units that agreed to
this provision in collective bargaining.
3)Add benefit contracts covering excluded employees to those exempt
from Department of General Services (DGS) review.
4)Appropriate funding to the Rural Health Subsidy Program.
5)Conform employee health benefit eligibility for BU 19 members
which was inadvertently omitted in the ratifying legislation last
year.
6)Allow State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) members who
become state employees to stay in CalSTRS, instead of joining the
AB 649
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Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS).
7)Permit security officers employed by the State Department of
Justice (DOJ) to have CalPERS state peace officer/firefighter
(POFF) retirement benefits.
8)Double-join this bill to AB 1441 (Lempert), which is currently
awaiting the Governor's signature.
9)Declare that this bill is an urgency measure to take effect
immediately.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill required state agency
employers to make payment of overtime wages no later than the
payday for the next regular payroll period.
FISCAL EFFECT : 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 (i.e., 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 State
Personnel Board (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 SPB appeals.
This bill amends the Government Code and the Code of Civil
Procedure to conform with the BU 11 collective bargaining
agreement.
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
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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 the Department of Personnel
Administration (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 agreed to the DPA process
of inclusion of managers and supervisors in safety retirement.
This bill amends the Government Code (i.e., 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 amends Government Code Section 20405.1 (c) 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" (i.e., 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.
Monies were not appropriated to the Work and Family Program and the
Rural Health Subsidy Program pursuant to Chapter 743.
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.
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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 (i.e., 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.
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 California
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) Applies 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; and,
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 the "2% at 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 CalPERS, receiving a retirement benefit based on
the "3% at age 50" formula, and are covered by "Industrial
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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 including them in
bargaining."
Analysis Prepared by : Karon Green / P.E., R. & S.S. / (916)
319-3957
FN: 0006183