Employees frequently engage in passionate discussions about union issues and working conditions, and those discussions do not always remain polite. Agencies sometimes find themselves at the crossroads of respecting employees’ union-related speech rights and enforcing the agency’s standards of conduct. This blog post provides general guidance to agencies regarding when employee speech exceeds the boundaries
California’s public labor relations statutes require public employers to respond to a labor union’s requests for information (RFI’s) in a timely manner. In fact, the definition of “meet and confer in good faith” includes the obligation to freely exchange information.
With statutory compliance hanging in the balance, it’s important for employers to know how to
During a Starbucks “listening session,” in 2022, in response to an employee’s attempt to discuss the benefits of unionization and Starbucks’ alleged unfair labor practices at other stores, former CEO Howard Schultz proclaimed, “If you’re not happy at Starbucks, you can go work for another company.” The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) held that the
Since the 2018 United States Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME prohibited public sector labor unions from charging agency fees to non-members, public sector labor unions have sought methods to incentivize union membership. For example, the state legislature recently amended the Meyers Milias Brown Act permitting labor unions who represent public safety officers to
In California, non-employee representatives of employee organizations generally have the right to access employee non-work areas, and to solicit for union membership or activity and distribute literature to employees in such areas on the employees’ non-work time.
The California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) has recognized that employers have a legitimate interest in maintaining security