Decision 2478M – County of Orange

LA-CE-899-M

Decision Date: April 8, 2016

Decision Type: PERB Decision

Description: The complaint alleged that the County violated the MMBA by denying OCMDA’s petition to sever five classifications of professional health care employees from the Healthcare Professional Unit.

Disposition: The Board held that the County violated MMBA section 3507.3 by denying the severance petition, because the employees covered by the petition were all professionals and are entitled to be represented separately from non-professional employees.

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Perc Vol: 40
Perc Index: 163

Decision Headnotes

1300.00000 – REPRESENTATION ISSUES; CERTIFICATION/VOLUNTARY RECOGNITION
1300.02000 – Request for Recognition

MMBA section 3507 leaves to the local public agency, not PERB, to establish rules regarding the recognition of employee organizations and the establishment of an exclusive representative of an appropriate bargaining unit, in accordance with MMBA provisions.

1308.00000 – REPRESENTATION ISSUES; SEVERANCE
1308.01000 – In General

County violated MMBA section 3507.3 and its local rule when it denied severance petition filed by employee organization seeking to represent a unit comprised solely of health care professionals.

1309.00000 – REPRESENTATION ISSUES; UNIT DETERMINATION/CRITERIA (SEE ALSO WHO IS AN EMPLOYEE?, SECTION 200)
1309.01000 – In General/Definition of Appropriate Unit

MMBA sections 3507 and 3509 together allocate the authority to determine appropriate bargaining units to a public agency that has adopted local rules concerning representation, provided those determinations conform with the statutory mandates of MMBA section 3507.3. PERB’s role in representation issues under MMBA is limited where local rules have been adopted. The County has adopted criteria for unit determination and it should be allowed to apply those criteria to determine if the petitioned-for unit of professional employees is appropriate. 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.

1309.00000 – REPRESENTATION ISSUES; UNIT DETERMINATION/CRITERIA (SEE ALSO WHO IS AN EMPLOYEE?, SECTION 200)
1309.11000 – 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.