UNFAIR PRACTICE ISSUES; PROTECTED ACTIVITIES – Grievances

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300.00000 – UNFAIR PRACTICE ISSUES; PROTECTED ACTIVITIES
300.05000 – Grievances

By alleging that the exclusive representative represented employee in her administrative complaint of abusive treatment by her supervisor, the charge included sufficient facts to demonstrate that the complaining employee, and by extension a fellow employee who agreed to appear as a witness in support of the complaint, had “participate[d] in the activities of [an] employee organization[] of their own choosing for the purpose of representation” on a matter of employer-employee relations. (pp. 11-12.) Whether an employee’s complaint is presented in a collectively -bargained grievance procedure is not necessarily determinative of whether it is protected activity, because, by virtue of the exclusive representatives’ involvement, the employee was participating in the activities of an employee organization, conduct expressly protected by HEERA section 3565. Fellow employee’s willingness to serve as a witness in support of the administrative complaint was likewise protected participation in an employee organization’s activity, regardless of the nature of the proceedings in which the complaint was presented. (p. 14.)