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 Since 1976 the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) has been resolving collective bargaining disputes between public employers, employees and their unions. These disputes have included determinations on whether public employees can strike, whether student employees of the University of California have collective bargaining rights, what forms of agency fees are permissible, and the parameters of bargaining units for State employees. PERB's success in resolving these and thousands of other disputes lies in its neutrality. For 30 years parties have recognized PERB is an impartial place for resolution of disputes.
JURISDICTION
The jurisdiction of the Board has gradually expanded over the years. It began with just the Educational employment area and was know as EERB. At present PERB's jurisdiction stretches across almost all sectors of public employment in California. PERB enforces statutes covering over 1,100 school districts, 100 community colleges, both the University of California campuses and the California State University campuses, approximately 500 cities, 58 counties and 5,000 special districts, 58 trial courts, four regional trial court interpreters, the State of California including the State Personnel Board, Hastings College of Law, and supervisors of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit District. Altogether, there are approximately 7,000 employers and 2 million employees under PERB jurisdiction.
HOW PERB WORKS
Unfair practice charges and representation work make up the majority of PERB's workload.
PERB receives approximately 70 new unfair practice charges each month. Each charge is investigated to determine whether it states a prima facie case. Those that do not are dismissed by written decision. These dismissals may be appealed to the Board itself. In those cases that state a prima facie case, a complaint is issued and the dispute is mediated. If mediation fails, a formal administrative hearing is conducted and a decision written. Appeal from such a decision goes to the Board itself. Board decisions are subject to requests for reconsideration or may be challenged in the Court of Appeal. Immediate relief in unfair practice cases may be sought through the injunctive relief request process at the Board level.
PERB's representation work revolves around the determination of an appropriate collective bargaining unit. Unions petition to represent employees in a particular group of job classification or bargaining unit. If an employer disputes the appropriateness of a proposed bargaining unit, PERB resolves the dispute through mediation or written decision. Once the parameters of the bargaining unit are resolved, in most cases, PERB conducts a representation election where the employer does not grant voluntary recognition. PERB also conducts decertification elections when rival organizations or a group of employees gathers enough signatures to require such an election. Numerous other types of changes to the bargaining units frequently involve PERB as well.
The work described above is conducted by the General Counsel and the thirteen members of his staff, and the Chief Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) and his staff of four ALJ's.
APPEALS
All appeals are heard by the Board itself. The Board consists of five full-time members. Each member is a political appointee serving a five-year term. One term expires each December 31. Although the Board meets in open session only bimonthly, it meets in continuous closed session for the entire period of time between open sessions. In deliberating on cases, the Board reviews each case de novo. Cases can come to the Board through one or both parties filing exceptions to an administrative law judge proposed decision or by appeal of a dismissal of an unfair practice charge by a Board agent. The Board usually reviews cases in panels of three members each but any member can join any panel.
In addition to its appellate review function, the Board acts on requests for injunctive relief, enacts regulatory changes, oversees the agency's budget and other administrative matters.
Requests for injunctive relief can be especially difficult. They often raise complicated issues and must be acted on within a matter of days or in cases of strikes, hours. In the summer of 2005 PERB successfully sought an injunction that kept the nurses at the University of California from going out on a pre-impasse strike.
SUCCESS
In summary, PERB's success in resolving thousands of collective bargaining disputes over the last 30 years can be attributed to a few factors: a small but highly motivated staff that reacts quickly to issues as they arise in the workplace; a dedicated hard working Board that fairly and impartially reviews appeals; and an overall agency commitment to neutrality.
Teachers, bus drivers, university instructors, firefighters, and 2 million other public employees, the unions that represent them and the public entities that employ them, recognize PERB as a true quasi-judicial neutral agency separate from the rest of State government. The present Board is focused on addressing appeals in a more timely manner and in maintaining its neutrality. The current Board members are Chairman John Duncan, Sally M. McKeag, Karen Neuwald and Lilian Shek.
Bilenda Harris-Ritter was the legal adviser to PERB Chairman John Duncan until July 2006. She was just appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to be a Commissioner on the Board of Parole Hearings. She is a member of the Executive Board of the Labor and Employment Law and the Administrative Law Sections of the Sacramento County Bar Association.
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