(a) Once an employee organization is recognized as the exclusive representative of an appropriate unit, it may enter into an agreement with the Judicial Council providing for organizational security in the form of maintenance of membership or fair share fee deduction.
(b) The Judicial Council shall furnish the recognized employee organization with sufficient employment data to allow the organization to calculate membership fees and the appropriate fair share fees, and shall deduct the amount specified by the recognized employee organization from the salary or wages of every employee for the membership fee or the fair share fee. These fees shall be remitted monthly to the recognized employee organization along with an adequate itemized record of the deductions, including, if required by the recognized employee organization, machine readable data. Fair share fee deductions shall continue until the effective date of a successor agreement or implementation of the Judicial Council’s last, best, and final offer, whichever occurs first. The Controller shall retain, from the fair share fee deduction, an amount equal to the cost of administering this section. The Judicial Council shall not be liable in any action by a Judicial Council employee seeking recovery of, or damages for, improper use or calculation of fair share fees.
(c) Notwithstanding subdivision (b), any employee who is a member of a religious body whose traditional tenets or teachings include objections to joining or financially supporting employee organizations shall not be required to financially support the recognized employee organization. That employee, in lieu of a membership fee or a fair share fee deduction, shall instruct the employer to deduct and pay sums equal to the fair share fee to a nonreligious, nonlabor organization, charitable fund approved by the Department of General Services for receipt of charitable contributions by payroll deductions.
(d) A fair share fee provision in a memorandum of understanding that is in effect may be rescinded by a majority vote of all the employees in the unit covered by the memorandum of understanding, subject to all of the following:
(1) A request for the vote shall be supported by a petition containing the signatures of at least 30 percent of the employees in the unit.
(2) The vote shall be by secret ballot.
(3) The vote may be taken at any time during the term of the memorandum of understanding, but in no event shall there be more than one vote taken during the term. If the board determines that the appropriate number of signatures have been collected, it shall conduct the vote in a manner that it shall prescribe. Notwithstanding this subdivision, the Judicial Council and the recognized employee organization may negotiate, and by mutual agreement provide for, an alternative procedure or procedures regarding a vote on a fair share fee provision.
(e) Every recognized employee organization that has agreed to a fair share fee provision shall keep an adequate itemized record of its financial transactions and shall make available annually, to the board and to the employees in the unit, within 90 days after the end of its fiscal year, a detailed written financial report thereof in the form of a balance sheet and an operating statement, certified as to accuracy by its president and treasurer or comparable officers. In the event of failure of compliance with this section, any employee in the unit may petition the board for an order compelling this compliance, or the board may issue a compliance order on its own motion.
(f) If an employee who holds conscientious objections pursuant to subdivision (c) requests individual representation in a grievance, arbitration, or administrative hearing from the recognized employee organization, the recognized employee organization is authorized to charge the employee for the reasonable cost of the representation.
(g) An employee who pays a fair share fee shall be entitled to fair and impartial representation by the recognized employee organization. A breach of this duty shall be deemed to have occurred if the employee organization’s conduct in representation is arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith.
(Added by Stats. 2017, Ch. 835, Sec. 1. (AB 83) Effective January 1, 2018.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018