Cerritos Fresno Irvine Pleasanton Riverside Sacramento San Diego The History of Collective Bargaining in California Public Schools ACSA Negotiators’ Planning.

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

[email protected]

William A. DiedrichRiverside

(951) [email protected]