All notes for Subtopic 1309.11000 – Professional Employees
| Decision | Description | PERC Vol. | PERC Index | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2975M |
County of Kern and Kern County Civil Service Commission
1309.11000: REPRESENTATION ISSUES; UNIT DETERMINATION/CRITERIA (SEE ALSO WHO IS AN EMPLOYEE?, SECTION 200); Professional Employees
MMBA section 3507.3 does not afford every group of professionals a right to its own unit. Accordingly, an “all professionals” grouping fully protects the right of professionals to be represented separately from non-professionals set forth in section 3507.3. (County of Orange (2016) PERB Decision No. 2478-M, pp.13-14.) However, traditional community of interest criteria can merit narrower professional units, depending on the circumstances. (See, e.g., Alameda County Assistant Public Defenders Assn. v. County of Alameda (1973) 33 Cal.App.3d 825, 832 [appellate court reviewing initial division of employees into units ordered the employer to place the public defenders in their own unit, finding that they were “Sui generis” and had little in common with other non-healthcare professionals].) In California counties where public defenders are part of a broad professional unit, they may seek to sever themselves into a stand-alone public defenders’ unit, but they bear the burden of showing that the larger, established unit cannot adequately address their interests. (pp. 28-29.) more or view all topics or full text. |
50 | 46 | 07/31/25 |
| 2975M |
County of Kern and Kern County Civil Service Commission
1309.11000: REPRESENTATION ISSUES; UNIT DETERMINATION/CRITERIA (SEE ALSO WHO IS AN EMPLOYEE?, SECTION 200); Professional Employees
MMBA section 3507.3, which affords professional employees the right to be represented separately from non-professionals, does not necessarily prohibit a mixed unit of professionals and non-professionals, but provides that professional employees placed into such a unit have the right to severance if a union seeks to represent them in a professionals-only unit and demonstrates sufficient proof of support in an initial petition and eventual election. (Santa Clara Valley Water District (2017) PERB Decision No. 2531-M, p. 14.) Thus, units containing both professional and non-professional employees are lawful, but such units are inherently unstable. (pp. 28, 50-53.) more or view all topics or full text. |
50 | 46 | 07/31/25 |
| 2975M |
County of Kern and Kern County Civil Service Commission
1309.11000: REPRESENTATION ISSUES; UNIT DETERMINATION/CRITERIA (SEE ALSO WHO IS AN EMPLOYEE?, SECTION 200); Professional Employees
MMBA section 3507.3 affords professional employees the right to be represented separately from non-professionals. “‘Professional employees,’ for the purposes of this section, means employees engaged in work requiring specialized knowledge and skills attained through completion of a recognized course of instruction, including, but not limited to, attorneys, physicians, registered nurses, engineers, architects, teachers, and the various types of physical, chemical, and biological scientists.” In a unit dispute involving professional employees, any party has the right to insist on a referral to SMCS, and at that point the employer must pause all proceedings under its local rules to allow SMCS to mediate and/or issue a recommendation. (International Federation of Prof. & Technical Engineers v. City and County of San Francisco (2000) 79 Cal.App.4th 1300, 1309-1310 [“the procedure of section 3507.3 is meant to be free of local variation” and “the subject covered by section 3507.3 is not subject to local regulation”].) For MMBA unit disputes that go to the Office of the General Counsel (OGC) in the first instance (because the employer has no applicable local rule), if the dispute involves professional employees and any party asks for a referral to SMCS, then OGC must similarly honor that request and pause proceedings. (pp. 26-28.) more or view all topics or full text. |
50 | 46 | 07/31/25 |
| 2916T |
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
1309.11000: REPRESENTATION ISSUES; UNIT DETERMINATION/CRITERIA (SEE ALSO WHO IS AN EMPLOYEE?, SECTION 200); Professional Employees
Act covering supervisory employees of Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority contains no presumption that professional employees should be represented separately from non-professional employees. more or view all topics or full text. |
49 | 54 | 08/26/24 |
| 2478M |
County of Orange
1309.11000: REPRESENTATION ISSUES; UNIT DETERMINATION/CRITERIA (SEE ALSO WHO IS AN EMPLOYEE?, SECTION 200); Professional Employees
MMBA section 3507.3 entitles professional employees to be “represented separately from nonprofessional employees by a professional employee organization consisting of those professional employees.” Although the County violated MMBA and its local rules by denying the professional employees included in a severance petition the right to be represented separately from non-professional employees, in the current procedural context, it is not PERB’s province to determine the contours of an appropriate professional unit. Case remanded to the County to decide appropriate unit in accordance with its employee relations resolution, provided that it may not create a unit that forces physicians and dentists or any other professional classification into a unit containing non-professional employees when they have petitioned for representation separate from that unit. more or view all topics or full text. |
40 | 163 | 04/08/16 |
| 1768M |
Modesto Irrigation District
1309.11000: REPRESENTATION ISSUES; UNIT DETERMINATION/CRITERIA (SEE ALSO WHO IS AN EMPLOYEE?, SECTION 200); Professional Employees
MMBA section 3507.3 provides for the right to separate representation for professional employees by a professional employee organization. But does not require placement from one mixed unit to another. more or view all topics or full text. |
29 | 140 | 06/10/05 |
| 0028E |
San Diego Community College District
1309.11000: REPRESENTATION ISSUES; UNIT DETERMINATION/CRITERIA (SEE ALSO WHO IS AN EMPLOYEE?, SECTION 200); Professional Employees
Because of different language found in EERA and NLRA, no requirement that administrative aides, system analyst programmers, accountants, junior accountants and buyers be excluded from Sweetwater office- technical unit and placed in separate unit. No sufficient separate community of interest shown among administrative aides, system analyst programmers, accountants, junior accountants, and buyers for these employees to be excluded from Sweetwater office-technical unit and placed in "professional unit." more or view all topics or full text. |
1 | 447 | 09/16/77 |
| 0008E |
San Diego Unified School District
1309.11000: REPRESENTATION ISSUES; UNIT DETERMINATION/CRITERIA (SEE ALSO WHO IS AN EMPLOYEE?, SECTION 200); Professional Employees
Sweetwater units approved for classified employees; not appropriate to include paraprofessionals in a unit with other classified employees. more or view all topics or full text. |
1 | 33 | 02/18/77 |