cerritos fresno irvine pleasanton riverside sacramento san diego the history of collective...
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Cerritos • Fresno • Irvine • Pleasanton • Riverside • Sacramento • San Diego
The History of Collective Bargaining in California Public Schools
ACSA Negotiators’ Planning RetreatJune 24-26, 2015
Presented by:Mark R. Bresee, PartnerWilliam A. Diedrich, Partner
Overview
• Pre-1960s Labor Relations
• Early Labor Relations Laws Concerning Public School Employees (1960s)
– George M. Brown Act (1961)
– Winton Act (1965)
• The Aaron Report (1973)
• Educational Employment Relations Act (1975)
California Public Sector Labor Relations
• Pre 1940s, notion of public employees being unionized and having collective bargaining seen by courts as anti-democratic: government by contract rather than government by law
• State workers afforded rights via Civil Service Act (1945)
• By the early 1960s, courts and legislatures began rejecting policy arguments against collective bargaining for public sector employees
George M. Brown Act
• Enacted in 1961, one of the nation’s first comprehensive public employee labor policies
• Applied to all employees of the state, school districts, public colleges and universities, counties, cities and special districts
• Included “all matters relating to employment conditions and employer-employee relations”
George M. Brown Act (continued)
• Only guaranteed limited meet and confer rights
• Did not provide authority for entering into binding agreements following the meet and confer process
• Did not establish a statewide agency to administer the statute
Winton Act
• Over time, various employee groups were transferred out of the Brown Act and into other labor acts
• In 1965, school employees were covered by the Winton Act
• Separated school employees from other public employees
Winton Act (continued)
• “Meet and confer” rights with no binding collective bargaining agreements
• No exclusive representatives, but employee “councils”
• Intent of Winton Act was to produce recommendations for governing boards to incorporate into “written resolution, regulation or policy”
– Nothing binding on governing boards
The “Aaron Report”
• In 1972, Legislature convened a commission in Assembly Advisory Council to prepare recommendations to improve public sector labor relations laws
• Resulted in the “Aaron Report,” named after commission chair
• Aaron Report recommendations
– Repeal existing public employee labor relations statutes
– Replace with comprehensive, preemptive state law
– Include exclusive representation, covering broad scope of issues, modeled after NLRA, overseen by 3-member panel
Breakthrough: The Educational Employment Relations Act (EERA)
• Proposed laws tracking Aaron Report defeated in 1973, 1974 and 1975
• In 1975, the Legislature passed the EERA (Gov. Code §§ 3540, et seq.)
– Signed into law by Jerry Brown
• EERA was the result of a “compromise” between employers
– Employers: wanted control over negotiable subjects
– Unions: wanted to maintain courts’ broad interpretation of union rights under Winton Act
Breakthrough: The EERA (continued)
• EERA created the Educational Employment Relations Board, a board patterned after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
• Now called the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) after expansion of jurisdiction to most public employees
• Five sitting panel members
• PERB not only patterned after NLRB, but also looks to NLRB interpretations of National Labor Relations Act for guidance
Breakthrough: The EERA (continued)
• EERA applies to all public school employees (K-12, community colleges)
• Covers a range of issues associated with collective bargaining, including representation, discrimination, and unfair practices
• EERA covers collective bargaining over “wages, hours of employment, and other terms and conditions of employment” (Gov. Code § 3543.2)
– Matters within the “scope of representation”
– Since passage, PERB has interpreted what falls within “scope of representation” for nearly 200 distinct topics
QuestionAnswer
Session
For questions or comments, please contact:
Thank YouMark R. Bresee
San Diego(858) 485-9526
William A. DiedrichRiverside
(951) [email protected]