REMEDIES FOR UNFAIR PRACTICES; MISCELLANEOUS REMEDIAL PROVISIONS – Provision of Information

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Where union’s RFI requested health and safety information regarding its members’ worksite, a national research lab owned by the U.S. Department of Energy and operated by the University, PERB crafted its remedy with due regard to the Privacy Act of 1974 (Privacy Act; 5 U.S.C. § 552a). To the extent the Board ordered the University to provide union with records, the Board ordered such production for the five-year period union sought, and also ordered University to provide updated records promptly upon receiving such a request from the union. (City and County of San Francisco (2024) PERB Decision No. 2891-M, p. 23 (San Francisco).) To the extent the Board ordered redaction, University ordered to use de-identified placeholders that facilitate tracking across multiple records. (Id. at p. 16; County of Tulare (2020) PERB Decision No. 2697-M, p. 14 (Tulare); Sacramento City Unified School District (2018) PERB Decision No. 2597, p. 13, fn. 7.) Because redaction can provide imperfect protection to individual privacy, the Board issued a complementary safeguard and directed union to use the records it receives only to investigate health and safety issues at national research lab and to pursue measures to prevent, lessen, ameliorate, or remedy such issues, including through collective bargaining. (San Francisco, supra, PERB Decision No. 2891-M, p. 21.) Finally, the Board directed PERB’s Office of the General Counsel or a designee to resolve any compliance disputes that arise in a manner consistent with its decision, issuing clear, written orders after in camera review of all necessary records. (Tulare, supra, PERB Decision No. 2697-M, pp. 15-16.) The compliance officer may, but need not, direct the University or union to submit a FOIA request to the extent the compliance officer finds that doing so will assist in expeditiously resolving this matter. (pp. 35-36.)