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
Disciplinary and investigatory interviews are an unavoidable part of managing a public workforce. When a represented employee is questioned in a setting that could lead to discipline or involving highly unusual circumstances that may significantly impact the employer-employee relationship, the employee may invoke the right to union representation. The right is grounded in both PERB
You’ve probably heard the term “Skelly” meeting or conference hundreds, if not thousands of times, but what does “Skelly” really mean? Even if you think you know, a refresher can’t hurt, right?!
Most California public employees have what is known as a constitutionally protected “property” interest in continued employment, once and
On September 16, 2020, the California Supreme Court granted review of Boermeester v. Carry, a case involving the expulsion of student Matthew Boermeester from the University of Southern California (“USC”) for intimate partner violence in violation of USC policy after an investigation and a hearing. The California Supreme Court’s review of the case is
In 2017, a police officer with the City of Huntington Beach (“Officer Esparza”) saw a man standing on a sidewalk who caught his attention (“Mr. Tabares”). Officer Esparza noticed Mr. Tabares wore a sweater on a warm day, walked abnormally, made flinching movements with his hands, and looked in his direction several times. A former