California Municipal Law Blog
category:
Employment Law
by Anita Bamshad on June 14, 2018
posted in
Employment Law, Recent Court Decisions,
Paid administrative leave may be considered an adverse employment action, a California Appellate court found in Whitehall v. Cty. of San Bernardino. In Whitehall, the plaintiff was employed by San Bernardino County Children and Family Services (CFS) and was assigned to investigate a case in which a nine-month old baby died under suspicious circumstances. Plaintiff obtained the police report which showed the deceased child and four other children were living uninhabitable conditions. The report contained photographs of children with ligature and burn marks. However, the CFS deputy director instructed ... Continue Reading
tags:
Administrative Leave, Adverse Employment Action, Whistleblower Laws,
by David G. Ritchie on February 26, 2018
posted in
Employment Law, Unions,
The United States Supreme Court hears oral argument today in a case that could reshape finances for public employee unions in 22 states, including California, where those unions are able to collect “agency fees” from non-member public employees to cover the costs of negotiating collective bargaining agreements and representation services.
Two years ago, the Court heard similar issues in Friedrichs v. California Teacher’s Association 136 S. Ct. 1083 (2016), however, the decision stalled 4-4 at the Court after Justice Scalia’s death prior to the decision, leaving the lower court decision ... Continue Reading
tags:
Collective Bargaining, Janus v. American Federation, Union Dues, Union Shop,
by David G. Ritchie on October 23, 2017
posted in
Employment Law, Unions,
If public employers have not already done so, all should be prepared to engage with exclusive representative organizations over employee orientation and providing employee personal contact information to those exclusive representatives in the immediate future.
Assembly Bill 119 is in effect now, and provided recognized employee exclusive representative organizations access to employees during employee orientation and also requires that employers provide employee organizations with personal contact information for bargaining unit employees on a regular basis.
... Continue Reading
tags:
AB 119, Orientation, Public Employees, Unions,
by David G. Ritchie on March 31, 2016
posted in
Employment Law, Recent Court Decisions, Unions,
The Fourth District Court of Appeals issued two decisions yesterday that held that fact-finding under the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (“MMBA”) applies to all impasses between exclusive representatives and MMBA public agencies such as cities, counties, and special districts. The results in these cases means that when impasse is reached in negotiations involving a city, county or special district with an exclusive representative employee organization, and that dispute involves subject matters within the scope of representation, the public agencies could be forced to engage in non-binding ... Continue Reading
tags:
AB 646, Fact-finding, MOUs, PERB,
by David G. Ritchie on March 29, 2016
posted in
Employment Law, Recent Court Decisions, U.S. Supreme Court, Unions,
Previously we wrote about Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association (a link to our previous article is here), a case involving whether public-sector union fair share arrangements are invalid because they violate individual first amendment rights.
Today, the Supreme court divided equally in deciding the case and issued a one-sentence decision affirming the Appellate Court decision and leaving earlier precedent, including the Abood case intact (as criticized as it has become.) The case was decided by an eight-member Court, which could have held the case over for re-argument after confirmation ... Continue Reading
tags:
Abood Case, California Teachers Association, Fair Share Arrangements, Friedrichs, Ninth Circuit, Union Shop,
