Public employment: unfair practices: health protection.

Existing law establishes the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) in state government for the purpose of resolving disputes and enforcing the statutory duties and rights of specified public employers and employees under various acts regulating collective bargaining, including the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act. Under existing law, PERB has the power and duty to investigate an unfair practice charge and to determine whether the charge is justified and the appropriate remedy for the unfair practice. This bill would enact the Public Employee Health Protection Act, which would make it an unfair practice for a covered employer, as defined, to fail or refuse to maintain or pay for continued health care or other medical coverage for an enrolled employee or their enrolled dependents, for the duration of the enrolled employee's participation in the authorized strike, at the level and under the conditions that coverage would have been provided if the employee had continued to work in their position for the duration of the strike. The act would also make it an unfair practice for a covered employer to fail to collect and remit the employee's contributions, if any, to this coverage, or to maintain any policy purporting to authorize an action prohibited by this provision or otherwise threaten an employee or their dependents' continued access to health or medical care during or as a result of the employee's participation in a strike. The act would require the restoration of health or other medical care premiums, contributions, or out-of-pocket expenses actually paid by the employee or their dependents as a result of the employer's violation of this provision, or because the employer failed to ensure continued coverage during a strike, and would require other equitable adjustments to ensure that the employee and their dependents are made whole, as specified. The act would define "covered employer" to include any public employer, as specified, that offers health care or other medical coverage for nonoccupational injuries or illness to its employees. The act would grant PERB jurisdiction over any violation of these provisions as an unfair practice, with specified enforcement powers and duties, including adjudication of claims and would state that its provisions are declaratory of, and clarify, existing law, as specified. By requiring unfair practice claims against local public employers to be adjudicated before PERB, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.