Hemet Municipal Code Art. II Employer-Employee Relations

In the interest of improving the efficiency of city services and the promotion of sound personnel management, it is the purpose of this article to establish uniform procedures for employees, whether individually or in organization, to participate in the process of communication toward establishing wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment, and to provide the means for amicable discussions and adjustments of matters of mutual interest, with the intent of fostering harmonious employer-employee relations.

(Ord. No. 682; Code 1984, § 3300)

The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

Confidential employee means an employee who is privy to decisions of city management affecting employer-employee relations.

Days means calendar days.

Employee means any regular or parttime employee, as defined in the personnel rules and regulations.

Employee organization means any organization which includes employees and which has as one of its primary purposes representing such employee in his employment relations with the city, and which has registered with the personnel officer as provided for in section 54-45.

Management and management employee mean all members of the city council, or any employee having the authority to exercise independent judgment in the interests of the city to hire, transfer, suspend, promote, discharge, assign, reward or discipline other employees, or effectively to recommend such action.

Management representative means the city manager or his designated representative. For the purposes of Labor Code § 1962, the city manager is designated as the municipal employee relations officer to whom employees of any departments or divisions of the city or employee organizations may address grievances and recommendations regarding wages, salaries, hours and working conditions. For the purposes of Government Code §§ 3500—3509, the city manager or his designated representative will act to represent the city to meet and confer in good faith with representatives of employee organizations.

Mediation means the process by which an impartial third party assists the parties in reconciling a dispute regarding wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment between representatives of management and the recognized employee organization.

Meet and confer in good faith means that the authorized representatives of the city and the representatives of recognized employee organizations have the mutual obligation personally to meet at reasonable times and confer in order to exchange freely information, opinions and proposals and to endeavor to reach agreement on matters within the scope of representation. The obligation to meet and confer in good faith does not compel the representatives of either party to agree to a proposal or to make a concession.

Proof of employee approval means proof of employee approval of a petition is demonstrated under this article by either of the following: signed and dated signatures on the petition, or signed and dated employee organization authorization cards. Only signatures of employees currently employed, which signatures have been executed within six months prior to the date of filing of the petition or authorization card presentation, shall be accepted as proof of employee approval. The total number of employees in a proposed representation unit shall be determined by using the council-approved city budget, adjusted to reflect the positions actually occupied as of the date of the petition, and excluding such classifications or individuals as may be limited from membership in the unit by the provisions of this article.

Recognized employee organization means an employee organization that has been registered pursuant to section 54-45 and has been certified pursuant to section 54-46.

Scope of representation means matters relating to wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment.

(Ord. No. 682; Code 1984, § 3301)

Cross reference— Definitions and rules of construction generally, § 1-2.

Employees of the city, except as may be otherwise provided in this article or by law, shall have the right to form, join and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing as provided in Government Code §§ 3500—3509. Employees of the city shall have the right to refuse to join or participate in the activities of any employee organization and shall have the right to represent themselves individually in their employment relations with the city.

(Ord. No. 682; Code 1984, § 3302)

(a) The city manager and the city council, after reviewing the petition filed by an employee organization seeking formal recognition as majority representative, shall determine whether the proposed representatives are an appropriate unit. The principal criterion in making this determination is whether there is a community of interest among such employees. The following factors, among others, are to be considered in making such determination:

(1) Which unit, if more than one, will assure employees the fullest freedom in the exercise of rights set forth under this article.

(2) The history of employee relations:

a. In the unit;

b. Among other employees of the city; and

c. In similar public employment.

(3) The effect of the unit on the efficient operation of the city and sound employer-employee relations.

(4) The extent to which employees have common skills, working conditions, job duties or similar educational requirements.

(5) The effect on the existing classification structure of dividing a single classification among two or more units.

No unit shall be established solely on the basis of the extent to which employees in the proposed unit have organized.

(b) If an employee organization desires to challenge the appropriateness of the proposed representation unit and seeks to establish a different unit, it shall, within 30 days of filing of the petition to seek to challenge, file a petition with the personnel officer requesting a unit determination through further action.

(c) If the personnel officer decides to challenge the appropriateness of the proposed representation unit, he shall, within 30 days of the filing of the original petition, give notice to the petitioner concerned of such challenge.

(d) If there has been no petition or notice filed challenging a petition to establish a representation unit within 30 days, the personnel officer shall certify to the petitioner that the representation unit has been established.

(e) If a challenge is lodged, the personnel officer shall notify the original petitioner in writing. If an amended petition is not filed within seven days of such notice, the petition and challenge shall be transmitted to the state conciliation service as provided in subsection (f) of this section. Upon the filing of an amended petition, the original petition shall be deemed revoked and an amended petition shall be processed as an original petition as set forth in this section.

(f) If a challenging petition has been duly filed, and the challenge has not been resolved by amendment or withdrawal, the personnel officer shall first transmit the petition and challenge with a request for determination to the state conciliation service, which shall utilize its procedures to determine the appropriate representation unit. The fees and expense, if any, shall be payable by the challenger. On suggestion of the state conciliation service, an alternate agency may be used. In resolving representation unit disputes, it is recommended that the state conciliation service or alternate agency shall in each case determine that broadest feasible grouping based upon such factors as internal and occupational community of interest and the history of representation. No city classification shall be included in more than one representation unit. The state conciliation service, or an alternate agency, may adopt rules governing its process of determination and may consolidate petitions for hearing. The decisions of the state conciliation service, or those of an alternate agency if used, shall be transmitted to the personnel officer and petitioner. The decision of the state conciliation service or alternate agency shall be final.

(g) Professional employees shall not be denied the right to be represented separately from nonprofessional employees by a professional employees' organization consisting of such professional employees. The term "professional employees," for purposes of this section, means employees engaged in work requiring specialized knowledge and skills attained through completion of a recognized course of instruction, including but not limited to engineers, architects, planners, librarians and persons engaged in various types of work of a specialized nature. In further definition, all of the following requirements are necessary in meeting the definition of professional employees:

(1) His primary duty consists of work:

a. Requiring advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction and study; or

b. Original and creative in character in a recognized field of artistic endeavor, and the results of which depend primarily on the invention, imagination or talent of the employee.

(2) His work requires the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment.

(3) His work is predominantly intellectual and varied in character and the output or result cannot be standardized.

(4) He does not devote more than 20 percent of his hours worked in a workweek to activities not an essential part of and necessarily incidental to such professional duties.

(Ord. No. 682; Code 1984, § 3303)

(a) Every employee organization that desires recognition shall, initially, and annually in January of each year thereafter, file with the personnel officer for transmission to the city manager and city council a declaration signed by its authorized officers containing:

(1) The name and mailing address of the organization.

(2) The names and titles of its officers.

(3) The names of the representatives of the organization who are authorized to speak on behalf of its city members.

(4) A copy of its constitution or bylaws, which shall contain a statement that the organization has as one of its primary purposes representing employees in their employment relations.

(5) Verification of employee membership in the organization, which may be shown by signed and dated signatures on a petition or on authorization cards, which also must specify the total number of such employees.

(6) A statement that the organization has no restriction on membership based on race, color, creed, national origin or sex.

(7) A designation of those persons, not exceeding two in number, and their addresses, to whom notice sent by regular United States mail will be deemed sufficient notice to the organization for all purposes.

(8) If applicable, a designation of the job classification or titles of those employees in a proposed representation unit which the employee organization claims to be appropriate, and the number of member employees therein. The organization shall request that the city council recognize the employee organization as the majority representative of the employees in the unit claimed to be appropriate. The city manager and the city council may order that an independent auditor be used and compensated by the city to determine from the records of the employee organization the actual number of employees included in the proposed representation unit who are members of the employee organization. If any employee organization desiring recognition denies the independent auditor access to its records, the city manager shall report to the city council the number of members of the organization whose dues are collected by payroll deduction. This number will then be considered the official membership in the employee organization until such time as the employee organization supplies the necessary information through the independent auditor.

(b) A recognized employee organization shall notify the personnel officer of any change the organization or unit makes in those items required by subsections (a)(1), (2) and (7) of this section, in writing, within ten days of any such change.

(c) A statement that the employee organization recognizes that the provisions of Labor Code § 923 are not applicable to city employees shall also be submitted.

(Ord. No. 682; Code 1984, § 3304)

(a) If the personnel officer determines that the employees' organization does in fact represent city employees and the declaration contains the information required by section 54-45, he shall recommend to the city manager and city council that the city council officially recognize the organization, and shall specify the level of recognition recommended and the representation units, if any, in which the employee organization represents a majority of the employees.

(b) The personnel officer shall determine the percent of proof of employee approval greater than 50 percent of the employees within the representation unit, which shall be certified as a majority petition.

(c) The personnel officer shall give written notice of his certification of a majority or minority petition to the petitioner, to the employees involved, and to any employee organization that has filed a written request for the receipt of such notice. Another employee organization may file a challenging petition seeking to become the recognized employee organization within the representation unit.

(d) If no challenging petition is filed against a majority petition, the personnel officer shall certify the petitioner as the recognized employee organization of the representation unit.

(e) If a minority petition is filed against a majority petition and is accompanied by proof of employee approval equal to at least 30 percent of the employees within the representation unit, the personnel officer shall refer the matter and request for an election to the state conciliation service or their suggested alternate, who shall call and conduct a secret ballot election pursuant to section 54-44.

(f) If a minority petition is filed, the personnel officer shall, whether or not a challenging petition is filed, request the state conciliation service or their suggested alternate to conduct a secret ballot election pursuant to this section. If a challenging petition is filed against a minority petition and is accompanied by proof of employee approval equal to at least ten percent of the employees within the representation unit, the election agency shall include the challenging employee organization on the ballot.

(g) Whenever an election agency calls an election pursuant to this article, it shall include the choice of no organization on the ballot. Employees entitled to vote in a representation unit shall be those employees within the representation unit whose names appeared on the payroll immediately prior to the date of election. An employee organization shall be certified by the personnel officer as the recognized employee organization within the representation unit if the majority of those casting valid ballots at the election chooses such organization. In an election where none of the choices receives a majority of the valid ballots cast, a runoff election shall be conducted between the two choices receiving the largest number of ballots cast. There shall be no more than one representation election in a 12-month period within the same representation unit.

(h) A decertification petition may be filed with the personnel officer by employees of an employee organization to determine whether or not a recognized employee organization continues to represent a majority of the employees within the representation unit. Such petition must be ac- companied by proof of employee approval equal to at least 30 percent of the employees within the representation unit. Such a petition may be received by the personnel officer only during the 30-day period between 90 and 60 days prior to the expiration date of an existing memorandum of understanding. When such a valid petition has been filed, the state conciliation service, or its suggested alternate, shall conduct an election to determine whether or not the incumbent recognized employee organization shall be decertified if a majority of those casting valid ballots vote for decertification, or in appropriate cases if a majority vote for the petitioning organization. In the absence of decertification, the certification of the recognized employee organization shall continue on a year-to-year basis.

(Ord. No. 682; Code 1984, § 3305)

(a) The city council, upon the recommendation of the city manager, shall suspend or withdraw recognition from any employee organization if the city council finds that the representatives or members of the organization have engaged in, caused, instigated, encouraged or condoned a work stoppage of any kind.

(b) As used in this section, the term "work stoppage" means the concerted failure to report for duty, the willful absence from one's position, the stoppage of work, or the abstinence in whole or in part from the full, faithful and proper performance of the duties of employment for the purpose of inducing, influencing or coercing a change in the conditions of compensation or the rights, privileges or obligations of employment.

(Ord. No. 682; Code 1984, § 3306)

The city clerk shall maintain a current list of recognized employee organizations. Recognition shall be effective until February 1 of the year following the date of the action of the city council.

(Ord. No. 682; Code 1984, § 3307)

(a) Employee organizations may represent their members in employment relations only in the matters and to the extent provided by the Government Code.

(b) No management or confidential employee may be represented in their employment relations with the city by an employee organization which represents other types of employees. However, nothing in this article should be interpreted as prohibiting management and confidential employees from joining and holding office in an employee organization.

(c) If the representatives of a recognized employee organization desire to meet with the city manager, they shall make their request in writing and specify the matters to be discussed. Upon the receipt of the request, a mutually satisfactory time and place shall be arranged for the meeting. Only those matters specified in the notice may be discussed at the meeting. Other matters may be discussed by mutual consent of all of the representatives present.

(d) With advance permission, and conditions permitting, unit representatives, not to exceed two, may be given reasonable time away from their duties to act in representing an employee on matters within the scope of representation.

(e) By the adoption of the provisions of this article, city management shall not be deemed to abrogate its right to establish policy and procedure and make whatever changes it considers necessary for the good and efficient services of the city. The exclusive rights of city management include but are not limited to the following: to determine the missions of its constituent departments, sections, groups and individuals; to set standards for services; to determine the standards of selection for employment and promotions; to direct its employees; to take disciplinary action; to relieve its employees from duty because of lack of work or for other legitimate reasons; to maintain the efficiency of governmental operations; to determine the methods, means, time and personnel by which government operations are to be conducted; to determine the content of job classifications; to take all necessary actions to carry out its missions; and to exercise complete control and discretion over its organization and the technology of performing its work.

(f) Recognized employee organizations only shall have access to the meet-and-confer process. Upon request, representatives of a recognized employee organization shall have the right to meet and confer in good faith with the appropriate representatives of management regarding wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment. Representatives of recognized employee organizations may participate in such meetings without loss of compensation or other benefits. As used in this subsection, the term "meet and confer in good faith" means the mutual obligation personally to meet and confer in order to freely exchange information, opinions and proposals and to endeavor to reach agreement on matters within the scope of representation.

(1) If agreement is reached by management and a recognized employee organization, they shall jointly prepare a written memorandum of such understanding, which shall not be binding, and present it to the city council for consideration and action.

(2) If agreement is not reached with respect to any matter, the representatives of the recognized employee organization may file with the city council a written statement of the organization's position with reference to that matter. The city manager may also file with the city council a written statement of his position with reference to that matter. Before determining the issue, the city council shall fix a time and place to receive any additional pertinent information that may be orally presented to it.

(3) Before finally determining the matter, the city council may, if requested to do so by the recognized employee organization concerned, re-refer the matter to the city manager for mediation. An impartial mediator acceptable to the city manager and the recognized employee organization shall be appointed to assist the parties in arriving at a voluntary resolution of the matters in dispute through interpretation, suggestion and advice. All mediation proceedings shall be private. The mediator shall make no public recommendations and shall not take any public position concerning the issue. The fees and expenses, if any, of the mediator shall be payable one-half by the city and one-half by the recognized employee organization. If the dispute is not resolved as a result of mediation, it shall be re-referred to the city council for final determination.

(g) Meeting and conferring in good faith with respect to wages, hours and employee benefits constituting a part of compensation shall be held during the months of April and May only of each calendar year.

(h) Employees shall not have the right to recognize a picket line of a labor or employee organization while in the performance of their official duties.

(i) Any rules and regulations adopted to further the administration of employer-employee relations and for the implementation or clarification of the provisions of this article shall be consistent with the Government Code, this Code and the city's merit system rules and regulations, as established in the personnel rules and as may be further defined by administrative directives.

(Ord. No. 682; Code 1984, § 3308)

(a) The city manager need not meet with the representatives of any recognized employee organization to consider:

(1) Issues of public policy.

(2) The merits, necessity or organization of any department, service or activity provided by the city pursuant to law or ordinance.

(3) Matters which relate to the management of the city or the direction of its workforce, including the right to direct employees, to hire, promote, transfer, assign or retain employees, to suspend, demote, discharge or take other proper disciplinary action against employees, to maintain the efficiency of the operation of the city government, and to take any actions necessary to meet conditions of an emergency nature.

(b) The city manager need not meet with the representatives of any recognized employee organization to consider the personal grievance of an individual employee or group of employees until the procedure for the resolution of grievances provided for in the personnel rules has been completed.

(Ord. No. 682; Code 1984, § 3309)

After consultation in good faith with representatives of affected recognized employee organizations, the city manager may, from time to time, recommend to the city council the adoption of such ordinances, rules or regulations as may be necessary or desirable to facilitate the administration of employer-employee relations.

(Ord. No. 682; Code 1984, § 3310)

The provisions of this article shall not be construed to constitute a contract between the city and any employee or any recognized employee organization.

(Ord. No. 682; Code 1984, § 3311)

Nothing in this article shall be deemed to supersede the provisions of the city's rules and regulations adopted pursuant to this chapter establishing and regulating the city's personnel system. This article is intended to strengthen the city's personnel system by establishing an orderly method of communication between the city and the representatives of recognized employee organizations.

(Ord. No. 682; Code 1984, § 3312)