Decision 2625E – San Diego Community College District
LA-CE-5972-E
Decision Date: February 20, 2019
Decision Type: PERB Decision
Description: Employee excepted to a proposed decision dismissing his complaint for discrimination under the Educational Employment Relations Act. The employee proved his protected activity of pursuing preferential assignment status under the collective bargaining agreement played a part in the District’s decisions to evaluate him in consecutive semesters and decline to offer him a class for the Fall 2014 semester. The District proved, however, that it would have evaluated the employee consecutively and not offered him a class that semester even if he had not pursued preferential assignment status.
Disposition: The Board affirmed the ALJ’s proposed decision.
Perc Vol: 43
Perc Index: 131
Decision Headnotes
503.03000 – Warning Letters, Reprimands, Evaluations
The Board found the employee’s consecutive semester evaluation was not an adverse action because it did not signal a performance deficiency under the circumstances of the case, distinguishing Jurupa Unified School District (2012) PERB Decision No. 2283, which held that evaluating a permanent certificated employee in two consecutive school years was an adverse action because, in the circumstances of that case, it signaled a performance deficiency.
505.11000 – Legitimate Business Purpose/Business Necessity
Employer established that it would not have offered adjunct faculty member a class assignment even if he had not engaged in protected activity where the undisputed evidence showed the department chair selected the best adjuncts for the needs of the students and demands of each course for each adjunct assignment and employee did not raise a specific critique of chair’s method for selecting adjuncts, even though employee argued he was at least as qualified as selected adjunct faculty.