REPRESENTATION ISSUES; UNIT DETERMINATION/CRITERIA (SEE ALSO WHO IS AN EMPLOYEE?, SECTION 200) – Efficiency of Operation

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The City did not unreasonably apply its local rules when it found that any labor negotiation efficiencies to be gained by placing all non-sworn Police Department employees into a single bargaining unit represented by a single exclusive representative were offset by the increase in the number of bargaining units and by the inefficiency of fragmenting classifications between more than one unit. Unit proliferation is not determinative by itself; for instance, potential inefficiency resulting from such proliferation can be offset by other factors, such as providing residual unrepresented employees a reasonable unit placement and therefore an opportunity to exercise their statutory rights. (Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital District (2020) PERB Decision No. 2689-M, pp. 30-31 [despite employer’s prediction regarding potential future inefficiencies, employer was required to create a separate unit for residual unrepresented employee group where union representing larger unit had declined opportunity to have the residual employees added]; Los Rios Community College District (2018) PERB Decision No. 2587, p. 7 [efficiency argument militates against severance only if there is concrete evidence that an employer’s operational efficiency will be unduly impaired].)