Local public employee organizations: differences: factfinding panel.

Existing law, the Myers-Milias-Brown Act, contains provisions that govern collective bargaining of local public employee organizations, and requires the Public Employment Relations Board to, among other things, determine in disputed cases whether a particular item is within or without the scope of representation. Existing law requires the governing body of a local public agency, or those boards, commissions, administrative officers, or other representatives as may be properly designated by law or by a governing body, to meet and confer in good faith regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment with representatives of recognized employee organizations. Existing law authorizes an employee organization to request that the parties' differences be submitted to a factfinding panel not sooner than 30 days or more than 45 days following the appointment or selection of a mediator pursuant to the parties' agreement to mediate or a mediation process required by a public agency's local rules. Existing law authorizes an employee organization, if the dispute was not submitted to a mediation, to request that the parties' differences be submitted to a factfinding panel not later than 30 days following the date that either party provided the other with a written notice of a declaration of impasse. Existing law requires the Public Employment Relations Board to select a chairperson of the factfinding panel within a specified period of time. This bill would provide that differences under these provisions include those differences that arise from any dispute over any matter within the scope of representation as to which an obligation to meet and confer exists and are not limited to negotiations after impasse after collective bargaining for a new or successor memorandum of understanding.