All notes for Subtopic 1000.02159 – Workloads

DecisionDescriptionPERC Vol.PERC IndexDate
2823S State of California (California Correctional Health Care Services)
1000.02159: SCOPE OF REPRESENTATION; Workloads
Davis Joint Unified School District (1984) PERB Decision No. 393 (Davis) does not establish a broad management right to change job duties. (Cerritos Community College District (2022) PERB Decision No. 2819, p. 31 [Davis cannot be broadly construed].) Management must bargain if it assigns tasks that are not reasonably understood to be among existing duties or increases “the quantity of work.” (Davis, supra, PERB Decision No. 393, p. 26 & fn. 11.) (pp. 11-20.) more or view all topics or full text.
472306/29/22
2823S State of California (California Correctional Health Care Services)
1000.02159: SCOPE OF REPRESENTATION; Workloads
An employer must bargain if it materially alters employees’ workload. (County of Santa Clara (2022) PERB Decision No. 2820-M, pp. 5-6 & fn. 4; Cerritos Community College District (2022) PERB Decision No. 2819, p. 30; County of Kern (2018) PERB Decision No. 2615-M, p. 10 & adopting proposed decision at p. 11.) A change in workload may be found even when the nature of duties assigned does not materially change—for instance, if an employer assigns fewer employees to perform a steady amount of work. (See, e.g., Fullerton Union High School District (1978) PERB Decision No. 53, pp. 7-8.) The converse can also be true: an employer can impose materially new duties without increasing overall workload, as alleged in County of Santa Clara, supra, PERB Decision No. 2820-M. However, these two types of material changes often occur in concert with one another and establishing one can aid in proving the other. For instance, if new duties increase employee workload, that tends to show that the new duties may not have been reasonably comprehended within existing duties. Physicians who work in state prisons were reasonable in understanding that California Correctional Health Care Service expected them to provide patients experiencing substance use disorder with materially new services beyond prescribing medication, including behavioral modification. (pp. 11-20.) more or view all topics or full text.
472306/29/22
2819E Cerritos Community College District
1000.02159: SCOPE OF REPRESENTATION; Workloads
There are several means of establishing that an employer must bargain regarding changes to represented employees’ job duties, absent a waiver. Pertinent here, an employer must normally bargain a change to represented employees’ job duties if it is a material change, meaning that the employer is assigning work that was not “reasonably comprehended within the employee’s existing job duties.” (Oakland Unified School District (2003) PERB Decision No. 1544, pp. 5-8 & adopting warning letter at p. 2.) The material change standard also covers decisions to transfer a job duty between employees within the same bargaining unit. (Desert Sands Unified School District (2001) PERB Decision No. 1468, pp. 3-4.) Furthermore, an employer also must bargain over a material change in represented employees’ workload or performance standards. (County of Kern (2018) PERB Decision No. 2615-M, p. 10 & adopting proposed decision at p. 11.) To the extent the ALJ asserted that Davis Joint Unified School District (1983) PERB Decision No. 393, held that an employer need not bargain over work assignments, the ALJ failed to acknowledge that employers must bargain over duties or assignments impacting workload, performance standards, or preservation of bargaining unit work, as well as over revised duties or assignments that are not “reasonably understood” to be among the employees’ existing duties or assignments. Davis’ thrust was thus more muted than the ALJ’s characterization suggested, and we disavow any categorical rule that work assignments are outside the scope of representation. (pp. 29-31.) more or view all topics or full text.
4616805/06/22
2615M County of Kern
1000.02159: SCOPE OF REPRESENTATION; Workloads
Performance targets and performance evaluation scoring rubrics relate to employee performance standards and workload and are therefore within the scope of representation. (pp. 9-10.) more or view all topics or full text.
4310912/21/18
2298M Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System
1000.02159: SCOPE OF REPRESENTATION; Workloads
The hospital’s refusal to meet and confer, at least on safety and workload issues, was absolute and thus unlawful. (City of Richmond (2011) 51 Cal.4th 259; Sierra Joint Community College District (1981) PERB Decision No. 179.) more or view all topics or full text.
3713712/20/12
2287H Trustees of the California State University
1000.02159: SCOPE OF REPRESENTATION; Workloads
To the extent that a non-negotiable managerial decision concerning direction of the workforce has an effect on employee workload, such an effect would be negotiable. more or view all topics or full text.
377910/04/12
2094H Regents of the University of California * * * OVERRULED IN PART by amendment to HEERA section 3563.3, Stats. 2011, Ch. 539
1000.02159: SCOPE OF REPRESENTATION; Workloads
* * * OVERRULED IN PART ON OTHER GROUNDS by Stats. 2011, ch. 539 (S.B. 857), § 4. * * *Nurse-to-patient staffing ratios relate to the workload of individual nurses on a particular shift. more or view all topics or full text.
344102/02/10
2057E San Francisco Unified School District
1000.02159: SCOPE OF REPRESENTATION; Workloads
Charge failed to allege what teachers’ duties were before principal issued memorandum setting forth expectations concerning written lesson plans, student progress reports, a classroom newspaper, reporting of student absences, the teaching or celebrating of American cultural mores, and grade-level team accountability, and therefore failed to establish that newly assigned duties fell within the scope of representation because they were not reasonably comprehended within the teachers’ existing duties. more or view all topics or full text.
3314508/28/09
1291S State of California (Department of Motor Vehicles)
1000.02159: SCOPE OF REPRESENTATION; Workloads
Performance standards "suggest rewards for attaining, and discipline for failure to attain, such standards." Accordingly, they are related to wages and, therefore, negotiable; p. 8, proposed dec. Memorandum expressing management's "expectations" implicitly notified employees that failure to attain expectations would result in discipline. Thus, "expectations" constituted performance standards; p. 10, proposed dec. more or view all topics or full text.
222917310/09/98
1284S State of California (Employment Development Department)
1000.02159: SCOPE OF REPRESENTATION; Workloads
Workload changes are a negotiable subject; pp. 21-22, proposed dec. more or view all topics or full text.
222915609/16/98
0798E Compton Community College District
1000.02159: SCOPE OF REPRESENTATION; Workloads
Student grievance policy negotiable on theory that it increases the workload or hours of work of counselors; pp. 29-31, proposed dec. more or view all topics or full text.
142107903/22/90
0373E Mt. Diablo Unified School District  * * * OVERRULED IN PART by Mt. Diablo Unified School District (1984) PERB Decision No. 373b and OVERRULED IN PART by The Accelerated Schools (2023) PERB Decision No. 2855 * * *
1000.02159: SCOPE OF REPRESENTATION; Workloads
* * * OVERRULED IN PART ON OTHER GROUNDS by Mt. Diablo Unified School District (1984) PERB Decision No. 373b and OVERRULED IN PART ON OTHER GROUNDS by The Accelerated Schools (2023) PERB Decision No. 2855 * * *Counselor workloads negotiable; p. 47. (See also Decision No. 373b, p. 19) School nurse caseload nonnegotiable because no evidence nurses had previously worked on caseload system. Therefore, it could not be concluded that unilateral change in caseload of nurses would be reasonably foreseeable result of decision to reduce nursing staff; p. 50. more or view all topics or full text.
81501712/30/83