Headnote for 2610H, 601.04000 When Duty Arises/Sufficiency of Bargaining Demand - California Public Employment Relations Board

EMPLOYER REFUSAL TO BARGAIN IN GOOD FAITH; REFUSAL TO BARGAIN IN GOOD FAITH (FOR SPECIFIC SUBJECTS, SEE SCOPE OF REPRESENTATION, SEC 1000) – When Duty Arises/Sufficiency of Bargaining Demand

Single Topic for Decision 2610H

Full Decision Text (click on the link to view): Full Text

601.00000 – EMPLOYER REFUSAL TO BARGAIN IN GOOD FAITH; REFUSAL TO BARGAIN IN GOOD FAITH (FOR SPECIFIC SUBJECTS, SEE SCOPE OF REPRESENTATION, SEC 1000)
601.04000 – When Duty Arises/Sufficiency of Bargaining Demand

Like the other PERB-administered statutes, the statutory scheme under HEERA presumes that notice of changes to negotiable matters will be provided “in a meaningful manner at a meaningful time.” (City of Sacramento (2013) PERB Decision No. 2351-M, pp. 29-30.) What constitutes meaningful notice will necessarily vary depending on the circumstances of each case, but, at minimum, an employer must give notice sufficiently in advance of reaching a firm decision to allow the representative an opportunity to consult its members and decide whether to request information, demand bargaining, acquiesce to the change, or take other action. By any measure, the University failed to provide UC-AFT with meaningful notice of the decision to transfer the Young Musician’s Program’s operations to a non-University entity. As early as November 2012, the University’s principal decisionmaker asked the campus general counsel to research two options, “each of which would get [the Program] out from under all the personnel issues without damaging the program.” Despite having decided as early as March 2013 to have the Program separate from the University, a University Labor Relations Specialist advised UC-AFT in April 2013 that the University was “seriously considering whether it should continue with the [Program].” In May 2013, the University informed UC-AFT that it had decided to close the Program, effective June 1, 2013. Throughout these communications, the University made no mention of its plans to subcontract or “transfer” the Program’s operations to a successor organization. By the time UC-AFT learned of the University’s decision to transfer the Program to the successor program (as opposed to simply closing it), the transfer was already well underway. (pp. 45-47.)