EMPLOYER INTERFERENCE, RESTRAINT, COERCION, EMPLOYER CONDUCT AFFECTING ORGANIZING, UNION ACCESS; SOLICITATION, AND OTHER UNION RIGHTS – Access - Union Right

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* * * OVERRULED IN PART by Napa Valley Community College District (2018) PERB Decision No. 2563, where the Board held that employees who have access to an employer’s e-mail system as part of their job duties have a right to use that system to engage in EERA-protected communications on nonwork time. * * *

State agency violated the Dills Act when it adopted a policy that allows employees to use the State's electronic mail system for minimal amounts of personal communication so long as the subject of the communication does not pertain to employee organization matters. State agencies violated the Dills Act by discriminatorily applying facially neutral policies in a way that prohibits communication about employee organization business while permitting other personal communication. These discriminatory actions interfered with the rights of employees to participate in the activities of employee organizations and the right of CSEA to communicate with its members. Access rights not described in the statute become available to a union in 2 circumstances: (1) usual means of communication are ineffective or unreasonably difficult; or (2) employers prohibition on access is discriminatory on its face or as applied. Once an employer has opened or unreasonably difficult; or (2) employers prohibition on access is discriminatory on its face or as applied. Once an employer has opened a forum for non-business communication, it cannot prohibit employees from using the same forum for a similar level of communication involving union activities.