Decision 2590E – Petaluma City Elementary School District/Joint Union High School District
SF-CE-3091-E
Decision Date: October 22, 2018
Decision Type: PERB Decision
Description: The complaint alleged that the Petaluma City Elementary School District (District) interfered with employee and organizational rights, in violation of Educational Employment Relations Act (EERA) section 3543.5, subdivisions (a) and (b), by: (1) prohibiting employees represented by Petaluma Federation of Teachers, Local 1881 (Local 1881) from distributing literature “of a political or union nature” on the District’s premises, including during non-work time and in non-work areas; (2) by directing employees to refrain from distributing pamphlets “during the workday,” without regard to employee breaks or other nonwork time; and (3) failing/refusing to provide information to the Union. After a hearing and briefing by the parties, the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) found that the District had violated EERA. The District excepted to the ALJ’s factual findings and legal conclusions as to each interference violation, but did not except to the ALJ’s findings and conclusions regarding the complaint’s failure/refusal to provide information allegation.
Disposition: The Board upheld and adopted the proposed decision, finding that the District had interfered with protected rights. The Board found no prejudicial error or serious mistake of law in the proposed decision’s determination that the District had failed/refused to provide information to the Union, and therefore declined to disturb that conclusion. The proposed decision’s ruling on that issue, therefore, is binding on the parties, but not precedential with respect to other cases.
Perc Vol: 43
Perc Index: 65
Decision Headnotes
401.03000 – Ban on Distribution or Solicitation
Following remand and a formal hearing in this case, the ALJ concluded that the District interfered with protected rights, as alleged in the complaint, when, on September 5, and October 10, 2014, its agents sent e-mail messages prohibiting employees from distributing “flyers of a political or union nature” and from “handing out pamphlets” anywhere on the District’s premises at any time during the workday, without regard to non-duty time, such as employee breaks, or to unofficial “downtime” to the extent the District authorizes or permits limited employee solicitation for other non-work-related causes during worktime. (See, Petaluma, supra, PERB Decision No. 2485, pp. 50-51.) In finding liability on both counts of interference, the ALJ relied, in part, on uncontested testimony from Local 1881-represented employees that they had received the District’s September 5, 2014 and October 10, 2014 e-mail messages.