California Government Code 3515.7 – (a) Once an employee organization is recognized as the exclusive …
(a) Once an employee organization is recognized as the exclusive representative of an appropriate unit it may enter into an agreement with the state employer providing for organizational security in the form of maintenance of membership or fair share fee deduction.
(b) The state employer shall furnish the recognized employee organization with sufficient employment data to allow the organization to calculate membership fees and the appropriate fair share fees, and shall deduct the amount specified by the recognized employee organization from the salary or wages of every employee for the membership fee or the fair share fee. These fees shall be remitted monthly to the recognized employee organization along with an adequate itemized record of the deductions, including, if required by the recognized employee organization, machine readable data. Fair share fee deductions shall continue until the effective date of a successor agreement or implementation of the state’s last, best, and final offer, whichever occurs first. The Controller shall retain, from the fair share fee deduction, an amount equal to the cost of administering this section. The state employer shall not be liable in any action by a state employee seeking recovery of, or damages for, improper use or calculation of fair share fees.
Terms Used In California Government Code 3515.7
- Board: means the Public Employment Relations Board. See California Government Code 3513
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Employee organization: means any organization that includes employees of the state and that has as one of its primary purposes representing these employees in their relations with the state. See California Government Code 3513
- Fair share fee: means the fee deducted by the state employer from the salary or wages of a state employee in an appropriate unit who does not become a member of and financially support the recognized employee organization. See California Government Code 3513
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- Maintenance of membership: means that all employees who voluntarily are, or who voluntarily become, members of a recognized employee organization shall remain members of that employee organization in good standing for a period as agreed to by the parties pursuant to a memorandum of understanding, commencing with the effective date of the memorandum of understanding. See California Government Code 3513
- Recognized employee organization: means an employee organization that has been recognized by the state as the exclusive representative of the employees in an appropriate unit. See California Government Code 3513
- State: means the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Government Code 18
- State employee: means any civil service employee of the state, and the teaching staff of schools under the jurisdiction of the State Department of Education or the Superintendent of Public Instruction, except managerial employees, confidential employees, supervisory employees, employees of the Department of Human Resources, professional employees of the Department of Finance engaged in technical or analytical state budget preparation other than the auditing staff, professional employees in the Personnel/Payroll Services Division of the Controller's office engaged in technical or analytical duties in support of the state's personnel and payroll systems other than the training staff, employees of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, employees of the Bureau of State Audits, employees of the office of the Inspector General, employees of the board, conciliators employed by the California State Mediation and Conciliation Service, employees of the Office of the State Chief Information Officer except as otherwise provided in Section 11546. See California Government Code 3513
- Subdivision: means a subdivision of the section in which the term occurs unless some other section is expressly mentioned. See California Government Code 10
(c) Notwithstanding subdivision (b), any employee who is a member of a religious body whose traditional tenets or teachings include objections to joining or financially supporting employee organizations shall not be required to financially support the recognized employee organization. That employee, in lieu of a membership fee or a fair share fee deduction, shall instruct the employer to deduct and pay sums equal to the fair share fee to a nonreligious, nonlabor organization, charitable fund approved by the Department of General Services for receipt of charitable contributions by payroll deductions.
(d) A fair share fee provision in a memorandum of understanding that is in effect may be rescinded by a majority vote of all the employees in the unit covered by the memorandum of understanding, provided that: (1) a request for the vote is supported by a petition containing the signatures of at least 30 percent of the employees in the unit; (2) the vote is by secret ballot; and (3) the vote may be taken at any time during the term of the memorandum of understanding, but in no event shall there be more than one vote taken during the term. If the board determines that the appropriate number of signatures have been collected, it shall conduct the vote in a manner that it shall prescribe. Notwithstanding this subdivision, the state employer and the recognized employee organization may negotiate, and by mutual agreement provide for, an alternative procedure or procedures regarding a vote on a fair share fee provision.
(e) Every recognized employee organization that has agreed to a fair share fee provision shall keep an adequate itemized record of its financial transactions and shall make available annually, to the board and to the employees in the unit, within 90 days after the end of its fiscal year, a detailed written financial report thereof in the form of a balance sheet and an operating statement, certified as to accuracy by its president and treasurer or comparable officers. In the event of failure of compliance with this section, any employee in the unit may petition the board for an order compelling this compliance, or the board may issue a compliance order on its own motion.
(f) If an employee who holds conscientious objections pursuant to subdivision (c) requests individual representation in a grievance, arbitration, or administrative hearing from the recognized employee organization, the recognized employee organization is authorized to charge the employee for the reasonable cost of the representation.
(g) An employee who pays a fair share fee shall be entitled to fair and impartial representation by the recognized employee organization. A breach of this duty shall be deemed to have occurred if the employee organization’s conduct in representation is arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith.
(Amended by Stats. 2017, Ch. 19, Sec. 11. (AB 111) Effective June 27, 2017.)