EMPLOYER DISCRIMINATION; ADVERSE ACTIONS – Transfer, Promotion, or Demotion; Work Assignments and Opportunities

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PERB has found that a reasonable employee would view the loss of compensation, including paid release time, as an adverse action. (Fresno County Office of Education (2004) PERB Decision No. 1674, pp. 13-14.) In this matter, the employees’ positions as Department chairs included the opportunity for paid release time and extra duty time that they lost when the District decided they would no longer serve as chairs.

PERB case law has also found an adverse action when an employer strips an employee of duties. (San Diego Unified School District (2019) PERB Decision No. 2683, pp. 9-10.) The Board has found the mere threat of assigning an employee to a position that was “a step down” was adverse. (Trustees of the California State University (2009) PERB Decision No. 2038-H, pp. 11-12.) The employees, senior chemistry faculty members, suffered a loss of compensation, prestige, and duties when the District removed them from their departmental leadership positions via a department-wide e mail, and replaced them with without an Academic Senate election. A reasonable employee serving as a department chair would find a public removal from an elected and compensated position adverse. (pp. 24-25.)