UNFAIR PRACTICE ISSUES; PROTECTED ACTIVITIES – Individual/Concerted/Activities/Self-Representation

Single Topic for Decision 2090M

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* * * OVERRULED IN PART by Walnut Valley Unified School District (2016) PERB Decision No. 2495, where the Board held that a charging party need not allege facts demonstrating conduct or speech is a logical continuation of group activity, if acts can be reasonably characterized as representing oneself in employment relations. * * *

While individual complaints related to employment matters made by an employee to a superior are protected, this right of self representation is not unlimited. Employee complaints to employers are protected when those complaints “are a logical continuation of group activity.” (Los Angeles Unified School District (2003) PERB Decision No. 1552.) Thus, where an employee’s complaint is undertaken alone and for his/her sole benefit, that individual’s conduct is not protected. Employee’s complaints regarding the use of non-engineers to direct the work of engineers and to perform engineering-related work were neither undertaken alone nor taken for his sole benefit; consequently, they were a logical continuation of a group activity and, therefore, constituted protected activity.