Public employees: orientation and informational programs: exclusive representatives.

(1) Existing law, including the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act, the Ralph C. Dills Act, the Trial Court Employment Protection and Governance Act, the Trial Court Interpreter Employment and Labor Relations Act, and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Transit Employer-Employee Relations Act, as well as provisions commonly referred to as the Educational Employment Relations Act and the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act, regulates the labor relations of the state, the courts, and specified local public agencies and their employees. Existing law establishes the Public Employment Relations Board and prescribes its powers and duties, in relation to these acts. These acts grant specified public employees of these entities the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their choosing and requires public agency employers, among other things, to meet and confer with representatives of recognized employee organizations and exclusive representatives on terms and conditions of employment. This bill would require the public employers regulated by the acts described above to provide newly hired employees, as defined, a specified public employee orientation within 4 months of hiring, to be conducted in-person, during work hours. The bill would require, if employees are represented, that the exclusive representative be given notice not less than 10 days in advance of an orientation. The bill would require the pertinent exclusive representative to be permitted to make a presentation of 30 minutes in the first half of the orientation. This bill would require an affected public employer to provide the exclusive representative with the name, job title, department, work location, phone number, and home address of newly hired employees within 30 days of the date of hire. The bill would permit agreements between a public employer and an exclusive representative that provide for orientations that vary from the bill's requirements, but in absence of an agreement on orientations, the bill's requirements would apply. The bill would also require affected public employers to provide the exclusive representative with the name, job title, department, work location, telephone number, and home address of all employees in the bargaining unit at least every 90 days, except as specified. The bill would provide that affected public employers do not unlawfully support or favor an employee organization or encourage employees to join any organization in preference to another, as specified, by permitting presentations at employee orientations or informational programs, as described above, or consistent with a negotiated agreement. The bill would grant the Public Employment Relations Board jurisdiction over a violation of these provisions. The bill would except from its provisions public employers with respect to in-home supportive services providers, as specified. By creating new duties for various local agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, with regard to certain mandates, no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.