Public employment: adverse action.

The California Constitution establishes the civil service and creates the State Personnel Board to enforce the civil service statutes. Existing law contains various provisions relating to civil service and employer-employee relations between the state and its employees, including provisions for disciplining state employees. Existing law authorizes the appointing power to take adverse action against an employee for one or more specified causes if written notice is served upon the employee prior to the effective date of the action. Existing law requires that the notice contain specified information and be filed with the board not later than 15 calendar days after the effective date of the adverse action. This bill would prohibit disciplinary action from being imposed upon an employee until the State Personnel Board hearing has been completed and an administrative law judge has sustained the charges, except that an employee may be dismissed from state service prior to that time if the presence of the employee at the workplace presents a clear and present danger to the facility or the public. The bill would specify that the State Personnel Board determines the effective date of the adverse action. The bill would also require that the notice be filed with the board not later than 20 calendar days after the date the notice of the adverse action was served on the employee, rather than 15 calendar days after the effective date of the action, and would provide that the disciplinary action shall commence on the 21st day after that date.