BP 4140/4240/4340 — Bargaining Units

Section: 4000 - Personnel
Status: Active

Adopted: 2018-03-27

Revised: 2024-10-10

Policy text

BARGAINING UNITS

The Governing Board recognizes the right of district employees to form a bargaining unit and to select an employee organization as the exclusive representative for the employees in the employee’s employment relationship with the district. The Board is committed to negotiating in good faith with the exclusive representative and respecting the rights of employees and employee organizations.

The district shall not dominate or interfere with the formation or administration of any employee organization or contribute financial or other support to it.

Employees shall not be prohibited from wearing union buttons, insignia, or other pictorial or written messages that favor or oppose the formation of a bargaining unit or any matter that is subject to negotiations.

Formation of Bargaining Units

Certificated and classified employees shall not be included in the same bargaining unit.

A bargaining unit of certificated or classified supervisory employees may only be recognized if the bargaining unit includes all certificated or classified supervisory employees, respectively, and is not represented by an employee organization that represents district employees who are supervised by the supervisory employees.

For this purpose, supervisory employees mean any employee, regardless of the job description, having authority, in the interest of the district, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees, or the responsibility to assign work to, direct, or adjust grievance of other employees, or effectively recommend that action, when the exercise of that authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment.

Employees serving in management, senior management, or confidential positions shall not be represented by an exclusive representative. In the employment relationship with the district, employees who serve in a management, senior management, or confidential position may represent themselves or be represented by an employee organization whose membership is composed entirely of employees designated as holding those positions. However, an employee organization representing management, senior management, or confidential employees shall not be permitted to meet and negotiate with the district on behalf of the employees.

Management employee means any employee who has significant responsibilities for formulating district policies or administering district programs.

Confidential employee means any employee who is required to develop or present management positions with respect to employer-employee relations or whose duties normally require access to confidential information that is used to contribute significantly to the development of management positions.

Membership

The district shall not deter or discourage employees or job applicants from becoming or remaining members of an employee organization, authorizing representation by an employee organization, or authorizing dues or fee deductions to an employee organization. In addition, the district shall not impose or threaten to impose reprisals on employees, discriminate or threaten to discriminate against employees, or otherwise interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees because of their membership or nonmembership in an employee organization.

District Communications to Employees

The Superintendent or designee may communicate with district employees regarding their rights to join and/or support an officially recognized employee organization or to refrain from joining or supporting an officially recognized employee organization. Such communications shall be factual and accurate, and may not promise a benefit, threaten a reprisal, or in any way deter or discourage employees from joining an employee organization or paying dues.

The district may disseminate written documents, recorded messages, or other mass communications to actual or prospective employees represented by an exclusive representative concerning their rights to join and/or support, or refrain from joining and/or supporting, an employee organization only after the Superintendent or designee meets and confers with the exclusive representative concerning the content of the mass communication. If the district and exclusive representative do not come to agreement on the content of the mass communication and the district still chooses to disseminate it, the Superintendent or designee shall request that the exclusive representative provide a communication of reasonable length to the district that shall be disseminated to the employees at the same time as the district’s own mass communication.

Access to Employee Orientations

The district shall permit each exclusive representative access to new employee orientations or onboarding processes where newly hired employees represented by the exclusive representative are advised, whether in person, online, or through other means or mediums, of their employment status, rights, benefits, duties, responsibilities, or any other employment-related matters. The district shall provide the exclusive representative at least 10 days’ notice in advance of an orientation. However, in any specific instance where an unforeseeable, urgent need critical to the district’s operation prevents the required 10 days’ notice, a shorter notice may be provided.

The structure, time, and manner of the access to new employee orientations shall be determined by mutual agreement of the district and the exclusive representative, following a request to negotiate by either party. If the district and exclusive representative fail to reach an agreement, , the structure, time, and manner of access to new employee orientation shall be subject to compulsory interest arbitration. The district and exclusive representative may mutually agree to submit any dispute to compulsory interest arbitration at any time. In addition, if any dispute arises during negotiations and is not resolved within 45 days after the first meeting or within 60 days after the initial request to negotiate, whichever is earlier, either party may make a demand for compulsory interest arbitration. . When any such dispute arises during the summer when the district’s administrative office is closed, the timeline shall commence on the first day the administrative office reopens. The decision of the arbitrator shall be issued within 10 days and be final and binding on the parties.

The date, time, and place of a new employee orientation shall not be disclosed to anyone other than employees, the exclusive representative, or a vendor that is contracted to provide a service for purposes of the orientation.

Until June 30, 2025, unless the district and the exclusive representative have agreed otherwise, when the district has not conducted an in-person orientation within 30 days of hiring a new employee, the Superintendent or designee shall permit the exclusive representative to schedule an in-person meeting during employment hours at the new employee’s worksite, during which the new employee shall have the opportunity to attend and shall be relieved of other duties for the purpose of attending the meeting. The district shall provide appropriate space at the worksite within seven calendar days of receiving a request from the exclusive representative. (Government Code 3556, 3557)

During this meeting, the exclusive representative shall be permitted to communicate directly with the new employees for up to 30 minutes of paid time.

Access to Employee Contact Information

The Superintendent or designee shall provide an exclusive representative with the name, job title, department, work location, telephone numbers (work, home, and personal cell phone), of all employees represented by the exclusive representative on file with the district. An employee’s personal email address shall only be disclosed if it used by the employee to conduct district business.

Such information shall be provided within 30 days of hire or by the first pay period of the month following hire for all new employees represented by the exclusive representative, unless the exclusive representative has agreed to a different interval for the provision of the information. In addition, the Superintendent or designee shall provide the exclusive representative the same information for all employees represented by the exclusive representative every 120 days, unless more frequent or detailed lists are required by agreement with the exclusive representative.

However, the Superintendent or designee shall not disclose:

The home address and any phone numbers on file for employees performing law enforcement-related functions
The home address, home telephone or personal cell phone number(s), or personal email address(es) of any employee who is a participant in the Safe at Home address confidentiality program pursuant to Government Code 6207
The employee’s home address, home telephone and personal cell phone numbers, and personal email address of an employee not performing law enforcement-related functions if the employee has submitted a written request to keep such information private. In such instances, the Superintendent or designee shall also remove the employee’s home address, home telephone, and personal cell phone numbers from any mailing list maintained by the district unless the list is only used by the district to contact the employee.

Within 20 calendar days after an exclusive representative notifies the Superintendent or designee that a list of employees provided by the district is inaccurate or incomplete, the Superintendent or designee shall take steps to correct the list and provide a new list of employees to the exclusive representative.

To provide accurate information, the Superintendent or designee shall review the list of district employees at the beginning of each school year, or more often as appropriate.

Communications with Employees

Subject to reasonable regulation by the district, employee organizations shall have access, at reasonable times, to the work areas of employees represented by the employee organization and to district facilities for the purpose of meeting with employees represented by the employee organization. Access may be limited in instances where it would be disruptive to district operations. (Government Code 3543.1)

Additionally, subject to reasonable regulation by the district, employee organizations shall have the ability to use institutional bulletin boards, mailboxes, and other means of communication to communicate with employees represented by the employee organization.

Membership Dues or Other Payments to an Employee Organization

When drawing an order for the salary or wage payment of a bargaining unit employee of an employee organization, the district shall deduct any amount that has been requested by the employee in a revocable written authorization for the purpose of paying dues or other payments for any service, program, or committee provided or sponsored by the employee organization.

When an employee organization has certified to the district that it has and will maintain individual employee authorizations for payroll deductions, the district shall rely on information from the employee organization regarding the amounts of such payroll deductions and the employees to whom they apply and shall not handle or process employee written authorizations for the employees represented by such employee organization. The district also shall not require a copy of the written authorization to be submitted by the employee organization, except when there is a dispute about the existence or terms of the written authorization.

When an employee organization has declined to certify that it will handle and process written authorizations from employee(s) represented by the employee organization and makes a request for payroll deductions, the district shall request a copy of the employee’s written authorization before making the payroll deductions.

A written authorization shall remain in effect until expressly revoked in writing by the employee and pursuant to the terms of the written authorization. Employee requests to cancel or change authorizations for payroll deductions for employee organizations shall be directed to the employee organization rather than the district. The employee organization shall be responsible for processing these requests. The district shall rely on the information provided by the employee organization regarding whether deductions for an employee organization were properly canceled or changed. The employee organization shall be required to indemnify the district for any claims made by an employee for deductions made by the district in reliance on information from the employee organization.