SCOPE OF REPRESENTATION – Hours of Work

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While instructors’ work calendar would ideally match students’ academic calendar, in reality that is not always true. Accordingly, PERB precedent distinguishes between a calendar setting employee workdays and a calendar setting student instructional days, requiring bargaining over the former but not the latter. A calendar setting instructors’ workdays during the school year must be negotiated because the term “hours” encompasses not only work schedules and workdays, but also the distribution of workdays in a year. In contrast, a calendar that only sets instructional days for students falls outside the scope of representation. The decision whether to offer certain courses beyond the state’s minimum instructional requirements is also outside the scope of representation. An employer therefore may unilaterally decide to reduce, expand, or cancel classes held outside the regular school year, subject to a duty to bargain the effects of such a decision. However, when an employer elects to move courses from one non-mandatory session to another non-mandatory session and in doing so alters distribution of workdays, holidays, and workload as it did here, it must provide affected employees’ exclusive representative adequate notice and an opportunity to bargain over both the decision and its effects. (pp. 4-5.)