Excluded employees: arbitration.

The Bill of Rights for State Excluded Employees permits, among other things, excluded employee organizations to represent their excluded members in their employment relations, including grievances, with the state. That law defines excluded employees as all managerial employees, confidential employees, supervisory employees, and specified employees of the Department of Personnel Administration, the Department of Finance, the Controller's office, the Legislative Counsel Bureau, the Bureau of State Audits, the Public Employment Relations Board, the Department of Industrial Relations, and the State Athletic Commission. This bill would enact the Excluded Employee Arbitration Act to permit an employee organization that represents an excluded employee who has filed certain grievances with the Department of Human Resources (CalHR) to request arbitration of the grievance if specified conditions are met. The bill would require the designation of a standing panel of arbitrators, and, under specified circumstances, the provision of arbitrators from the California State Mediation and Conciliation Service within the Department of Industrial Relations. The bill would then require the arbitrator to be chosen in a specified manner, and would prescribe the duties of that arbitrator. The bill would provide that a party to the arbitration has the right to have a certified shorthand reporter transcribe the proceeding and that the transcription would be the official record of the proceeding. The bill would also require the losing party to bear the costs of arbitration, including the cost of a certified shorthand reporter, except that the bill would prohibit the arbitrator from ordering the excluded employee to pay the costs of arbitration and would prohibit the costs of arbitration from being passed on to the excluded employee. The bill would make a statement of legislative intent with regard to the above.