Collective bargaining: state employees.

Existing law authorizes the Public Employment Relations Board to, in accordance with reasonable standards, designate positions or classes of positions which have duties consisting primarily of the enforcement of state laws. Existing law prohibits employees in these designated positions or classes from being denied the right to be in a bargaining unit composed solely of those employees. Existing regulations provide the procedure by which an employee organization may file a petition to become the exclusive representative of an appropriate unit consisting of a group of employees who are already members of a larger established unit represented by an incumbent exclusive representative. Existing regulations require a petition to sever to be accompanied by proof of majority support in the unit claimed to be appropriate. This bill would declare that state employee peace officers, as prescribed, have the right to be in a unit composed solely of those employees, provided they have complied with the regulations governing severance petitions described above. The bill would require the State Personnel Board to grant any complying petition within 30 days of the effective date of this act. The bill would also make related, conforming changes to those provisions.