UNFAIR PRACTICE ISSUES; PROTECTED ACTIVITIES – Speech

Single Topic for Decision 2797E

View all topics for Decision 2797E

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

Conduct included in a disciplinary notice was protected by EERA because Union president was acting in his capacity as Union president in representing bargaining unit members in their relations with the District. The District failed to meet its burden of showing any behavior that was so “opprobrious, flagrant, insulting, defamatory, insubordinate, or fraught with malice as to cause substantial disruption of or material interference [in the workplace]” as to lose statutory protection. (See Pomona Unified School District (2000) PERB Decision No. 1375, p. 16 [finding a letter that used “forceful but not abusive” language to describe the author’s displeasure with how school administration had represented her employment status to third parties retained its statutory protection because it was the type of conduct “that labor relations personnel are likely to encounter at least occasionally in the routine course of business”].)