This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the Judicial Council Employer-Employee Relations Act.

The Legislature finds and declares that it is the purpose of this chapter to promote full communication between the Judicial Council and its employees by providing a reasonable method of resolving disputes regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment between the Judicial Council and public employee organizations. It is also the purpose of this chapter to promote the improvement of personnel management and employer-employee relations within the Judicial Council by providing a uniform basis for recognizing the right of Judicial Council employees to join organizations of their own choosing and be represented by those organizations in their employment relations with the Judicial Council. It is further the purpose of this chapter,

in order to foster peaceful employer-employee relations, to allow Judicial Council employees to select one employee organization as the exclusive representative of the employees in an appropriate unit and to permit the exclusive representative to receive financial support from those employees who receive the benefits of this representation.

For purposes of this chapter:

the Judicial Council and that has as one of its primary purposes representing these employees in their relations with the Judicial Council.

dues, and general assessments of the recognized employee organization.

membership” means that all employees who voluntarily are, or who voluntarily become, members of a recognized employee organization shall remain members of that employee organization in good standing for a period as agreed to by the parties pursuant to a memorandum of understanding, commencing with the effective date of the memorandum of understanding. A maintenance of membership provision shall not apply to any employee who within 30 days prior to the expiration of the memorandum of understanding withdraws from the employee organization by sending a signed withdrawal letter to the employee organization and a copy to the Controller’s office.

department.

suggestion, and advice.

of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction, as distinguished from a general academic education or from an apprenticeship or from training in the performance of routine mental, manual, or physical processes.

employees.

The Judicial Council shall have the sole authority and discretion to designate Judicial Council state employee positions as excluded positions, provided that managerial, supervisory, confidential, and excluded positions not included in bargaining units under this chapter shall not exceed one-third of the total authorized Judicial Council positions as stated in the Department of Finance Salaries and Wages Supplement. Designation of the excluded positions under this section shall not be subject to review by the board.

Any person who willfully resists, prevents, impedes, or interferes with any member of the board, or any of its agents, in the performance of duties pursuant to this chapter, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be sentenced to pay a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000).

The initial determination as to whether the charges of unfair practices are justified, and, if so, what remedy is necessary to effectuate the purposes of this chapter, shall be a matter within the exclusive jurisdiction of the board, except that in an action to recover damages due to an unlawful strike, the board shall have no authority to award strike-preparation expenses as damages, and shall have no authority to award damages for costs, expenses, or revenue losses incurred during, or as a consequence of, an unlawful strike. Procedures for investigating, hearing, and deciding these cases shall be devised and promulgated by the board and shall include all of the following:

employee, employee organization, or employer shall have the right to file an unfair practice charge, except that the board shall not do either of the following:

settlement or arbitration award reached pursuant to the grievance machinery solely for the purpose of determining whether it is repugnant to the purposes of this chapter. If the board finds that the settlement or arbitration award is repugnant to the purposes of this chapter, it shall issue a complaint on the basis of a timely filed charge, and hear and decide the case on the merits; otherwise, it shall dismiss the charge. The board shall, in determining whether the charge was timely filed, consider the six-month limitation set forth in this subdivision to have been tolled during the time it took the charging party to exhaust the grievance machinery.

an unfair practice under this chapter.

Except as otherwise provided by the Legislature, Judicial Council employees shall have the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on all matters of employer-employee relations. Judicial Council employees also shall have the right to refuse to join or participate in the activities of employee organizations, except that nothing shall preclude the parties from agreeing to a maintenance of membership provision or a fair share fee provision pursuant to a memorandum of understanding. In any event, Judicial Council employees shall have the right to represent themselves individually in their employment relations with the Judicial

Council.

Employee organizations shall have the right to represent their members in their employment relations with the Judicial Council, except that once an employee organization is recognized as the exclusive representative of an appropriate unit, the recognized employee organization is the only organization that may represent that unit in employment relations with the Judicial Council. Employee organizations may establish reasonable restrictions regarding who may join and may make reasonable provisions for the dismissal of individuals from membership. This section shall not prohibit any employee from appearing in his or her own behalf in his or her employment relations with the Judicial Council.

All employee organizations shall have the right to have membership dues, initiation fees, membership benefit programs, and general assessments deducted pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 1152 and Section 1153 until an employee organization is recognized as the exclusive representative for employees in an appropriate unit, and then any deductions as to any employee in the negotiating unit shall not be permissible except to the exclusive representative.

monthly to the recognized employee organization along with an adequate itemized record of the deductions, including, if required by the recognized employee organization, machine readable data. Fair share fee deductions shall continue until the effective date of a successor agreement or implementation of the Judicial Council’s last, best, and final offer, whichever occurs first. The Controller shall retain, from the fair share fee deduction, an amount equal to the cost of administering this section. The Judicial Council shall not be liable in any action by a Judicial Council employee seeking recovery of, or damages for, improper use or calculation of fair share fees.

employee organizations shall not be required to financially support the recognized employee organization. That employee, in lieu of a membership fee or a fair share fee deduction, shall instruct the employer to deduct and pay sums equal to the fair share fee to a nonreligious, nonlabor organization, charitable fund approved by the Department of General Services for receipt of charitable contributions by payroll deductions.

the unit.

board for an order compelling this compliance, or the board may issue a compliance order on its own motion.

recognized employee organization. A breach of this duty shall be deemed to have occurred if the employee organization’s conduct in representation is arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith.

Any Judicial Council employee who pays a fair share fee shall have the right to demand and receive from the recognized employee organization, under procedures established by the recognized employee organization, a return of any part of that fee paid by him or her which represents the employee’s additional pro rata share of expenditures by the recognized employee organization that is either in aid of activities or causes of a partisan political or ideological nature only incidentally related to the terms and conditions of employment, or applied towards the cost of any other benefits available only to members of the recognized employee organization. The pro rata share subject to refund shall not reflect, however, the costs of support of lobbying

activities designed to foster policy goals and collective negotiations and contract administration, or to secure for the employees represented advantages in wages, hours, and other conditions of employment in addition to those secured through meeting and conferring with the Judicial Council. The board may compel the recognized employee organization to return that portion of a fair share fee which the board may determine to be subject to refund under the provisions of this section.

The scope of representation shall be limited to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment, except, however, that the scope of representation shall not include consideration of the merits, necessity, or organization of any service or activity provided by law or executive order.

with a recognized employee organization, the administrative officials or their delegated representatives as may be properly designated by law shall provide notice and opportunity to meet and confer in good faith at the earliest practical time following the adoption of the law, rule, resolution, or regulation.

The Administrative Director of the Courts, or his or her designated representatives, acting with the authorization of the Chairperson of the Judicial Council, shall meet and confer in good faith regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment with representatives of recognized employee organizations, and shall consider fully such presentations as are made by the employee organization on behalf of its members prior to arriving at a determination of policy or course of action. For purposes of this section, the term “meet and confer in good faith” means that the Administrative Director of the Courts, or his or her designated representatives, and representatives of recognized employee organizations, shall have the mutual obligation

personally

to meet and confer promptly upon request by either party and continue to meet and confer for a reasonable period of time in order to exchange freely information, opinions, and proposals, and to endeavor to reach agreement on matters within the scope of representation prior to the adoption by the state of its final budget for the ensuing year. The process should include adequate time for the resolution of impasses.

If an agreement is reached between the Administrative Director of the Courts and the recognized employee organization, they shall jointly prepare a written memorandum of the agreement which shall be presented, when appropriate, to the Legislature for appropriation of funding and amendment of any related statutes.

letter, appendix, or other addendum.

If the Legislature does not fully fund any provision of the memorandum of understanding that requires the expenditure of funds, either party may reopen negotiations on all or part of the memorandum of understanding. Nothing herein shall prevent the parties from agreeing and effecting those provisions of the memorandum of understanding which do not require legislative action.

covered in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. Sec. 201 et seq.), and any provisions covering fair share fee deduction consistent with Section 3515.7.

bargain in good faith and reach an agreement on a memorandum of understanding if circumstances change, and does not waive rights that the recognized employee organization has under this chapter.

If after a reasonable period of time, the Administrative Director of the Courts and the recognized employee organization fail to reach agreement, the Administrative Director of the Courts and the recognized employee organization may agree upon the appointment of a mediator mutually agreeable to the parties, or either party may request the board to appoint a mediator. When both parties mutually agree upon a mediator, costs of mediation shall be divided one-half to the Judicial Council and one-half to the recognized employee organization. If the board appoints the mediator, the costs of mediation shall be paid by the board.

A reasonable number of employee representatives of recognized employee organizations shall be granted reasonable time off without loss of compensation or other benefits when formally meeting and conferring with representatives of the Judicial Council on matters within the scope of representation. This section shall apply only to Judicial Council employees, as defined by subdivision (c) of Section 3524.52, and only for periods when a memorandum of understanding is not in effect.