School employees: labor relations: fair share services fee or alternative fee: deduction: recognized employee organization decertification and recertification.

Under existing law, public school employees have the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on all matters of employer-employee relations. Existing law requires public school employers, as defined, upon receiving notice from an exclusive representative of public school employees who are in a unit for which an exclusive representative has been selected, to deduct the amount of the fair share service fee from the wages and salary of affected employees and pay those amounts to the employee organization. Existing law prohibits an employee who is a member of a religious body whose traditional tenets or teachings include objections to joining or financially supporting employee organizations from being required to join, maintain membership in, or financially support any employee organization as a condition of employment, except that the employee may be required, in lieu of a fair share service fee, to pay sums equal to the fair share service fee either to a nonreligious, nonlabor organization, or a charitable fund exempt from taxation, as provided. Existing law requires the employer of a public school employee to provide the exclusive representative of the employee with the home address of each bargaining unit member. This bill would prohibit a public school employer from deducting the amount of the fair share service fee or the alternative fee described above from the wages and salary of a public school employee unless the employer has received explicit written permission from the employee, as specified, and would require an employee's authorization to only be valid for the calendar year in which it is given unless terminated, as provided. The bill would repeal the above provision requiring a public school employer to provide the exclusive representative with the home address of each bargaining unit member. Existing law authorizes an employee organization to become the exclusive representative for the employees of an appropriate unit for purposes of meeting and negotiating by filing a request with a public school employer alleging that a majority of the employees in an appropriate unit wish to be represented by the organization and asking the public school employer to recognize it as the exclusive representative. Existing law requires a public school employer to grant a request for recognition, except as specified. This bill would authorize the decertification of a recognized employee organization if a majority of all the employees in the negotiating unit vote to decertify, the request for a vote is supported by a petition containing signatures of 30% of the employees in the negotiating unit, and the signatures are obtained in one academic year. The bill would authorize the recertification of an employee organization as the exclusive bargaining representative by a similar petition and voting process no sooner than one year after decertification. The bill would require the Public Employment Relations Board to bear the cost of conducting decertification and recertification elections.