Victorville Municipal Code Art. V Miscellaneous Provisions

This chapter shall be administered and construed as follows:

(a) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to deny to any person, employee, organization, the city, or any authorized officer, body or other representatives of the city, the rights, powers, and authority granted by federal or state law.

(b) This chapter shall be interpreted so as to carry out its purposes as set forth in section 2.40.020 of article I.

(c) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as making the provisions of California Labor Code Section 923 applicable to city employees or employee organizations, or of giving employees or employee organizations the right to participate in, support, cooperate or encourage, directly or indirectly, any strike, sickout or other total or partial stoppage or slowdown of work which poses an imminent threat to public health and safety. In consideration of and as a condition of initial and continued employment by the city, employees recognize that any such actions by them are in violation of their conditions of employment except as expressly otherwise provided by legally preemptive state or contrary local law. In the event employees engage in such actions, they shall subject themselves to discipline up to and including termination, and may be permanently replaced, to the extent such actions are not prohibited by preemptive law; and employee organizations may thereby forfeit any rights accorded them under law or contract.

The rights, powers, and authority of the city council in all matters, including the right to maintain any legal action, shall not be modified or restricted by this chapter.

(Ord. No. 2396, § 20, 11-19-19)

(a) Definition. A grievance is any dispute concerning the interpretation or application of this chapter or of the practical consequences of a city rights' decision on wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment.

(b) Time limits. All grievances must be presented within five regularly scheduled workdays from the date the event occurs which gives rise to the grievance unless the parties mutually agree in writing to modify the time limits. Unless the parties mutually agree in writing to modify the time limits, any grievance that is not appealed within the time limits specified in this section shall be considered as settled on the basis of the decision last given.

(c) First step. Within the time limit specified above, the employee, or the employee organization, having the grievance will have a verbal discussion with the employee's immediate supervisor. The parties shall make an attempt to settle the grievance.

(d) Second step. If the grievance is not settled on the basis of the first step discussion, then within ten regularly scheduled workdays of the date of such discussion the grievance shall be reduced to writing and submitted to the employee relations officer. The written grievance shall indicate the facts on which the grievance is based, and shall be signed by the employee or a representative of the employee organization prosecuting the grievance. Within ten regularly scheduled workdays from the date the grievance is personally received by the employee relations officer, he or she shall meet with the employee having the grievance and a member of that employee's organization, if requested by the employee, or in the case of a grievance filed by an employee organization with a representative of that organization, to discuss the grievance. The employee relations officer shall give a written answer and decision to the grievance within ten regularly scheduled workdays from the date of the second step meeting. This decision shall be final and binding on the city, the employee organization and the employee(s) involved.

(Ord. No. 2396, § 21, 11-19-19)

When the meeting and conferring process is concluded between the city and a formally exclusively recognized employee organization representing a majority of the employees in an appropriate unit, all agreed-upon matters shall be incorporated in a written memorandum of understanding signed by the duly authorized city and majority representatives.

As to those matters within the authority of the city council, the memorandum of understanding shall be submitted to the city council for determination.

To the extent there is any conflict between this chapter and the MOU, the provisions of the MOU shall take precedence.

(Ord. No. 2396, § 22, 11-19-19)

Only an exclusively recognized employee organization may be granted permission by the employee relations officer to have the regular dues of its members, or an agency shop fee or agency shop fee payers, if applicable, deducted from their paychecks in accordance with procedures prescribed by the employee relations officer. Provided, however, this shall not preclude the continuation of dues check-off heretofore granted to any employee organization.

Dues or agency shop fee deductions shall be for a specified amount and shall be made only upon the voluntary written authorization of the member or agency shop fee payer. Dues and agency shop fee deduction authorizations may be canceled and the deduction discontinued at any time by the member or agency shop payer upon voluntary written notice to the employee relations officer. Employee payroll deduction authorizations shall be in uniform amounts for dues and agency shop fees deductions. Dues or agency shop fee deduction authorizations or cancellations shall be made upon cards provided by the payroll department, which shall be in substantially the following form:

VOLUNTARY DUES OR AGENCY SHOP FEE AUTHORIZATION PROVISION

I hereby voluntarily authorize and direct the Employee Relations Officer of the City of Victorville to make a payroll deduction from my earnings, once each month, for my formally recognized employee organization dues or agency shop fee in the amount of $___________, the same to be paid to the (name of formally recognized employee organization). This authorization may be canceled and the payroll deduction discontinued at any time upon written notice to the Employee Relations Officer.

First deduction to be made on the payroll for the payroll period ending ___________.

Effective Date

Signature of Employee

The employee 's earnings must be regularly sufficient after other legal and required deductions are made to cover the amount of the dues or agency shop fee check-off authorized. When a member in good standing of the formally recognized employee organization is in a non-pay status for an entire pay period, no withholding will be made to cover that pay period from future earnings nor will the employee deposit the amount with the city which would have been withheld if the member had been in a pay status during that period. In the case of an employee who is in a non-pay status during only a part of the pay period and the salary is not sufficient to cover the full withholding, no deduction shall be made. In this connection, all other legal and required deductions have priority over employee organization dues and agency shop fees.

Dues and agency shop fees withheld by the city shall be transmitted to the officer designated in writing by the employee organization as the person authorized to receive such funds, at the address specified.

All employee organizations who receive dues and agency shop fees shall indemnify, defend, and hold the city harmless against any claims made and against any suit instituted against the city on account of deduction of employee organization dues or agency shop fee. In addition, all such employee organizations shall refund to the city any amounts paid to it in error upon presentation of supporting evidence.

The references herein to agency shop fees shall apply only if an agency shop agreement or arrangement has been established between the city and an exclusively recognized employee organization pursuant to Government Code Section 3502.5.

(Ord. No. 2396, § 23, 11-19-19)

The exclusively recognized employee organization may select not more than two employee members of such an organization to attend scheduled meetings with the employee relations officer or other management officials on subjects within the scope of representation during regular work hours without loss of compensation. Where circumstances warrant, the employee relations officer may approve the attendance at such meetings of additional employee representatives with or without loss of compensation. The employee organization shall whenever practicable, submit the names of all such employee representatives to the employee relations officer at least three working days in advance of such meetings. Provided, further:

(a) That no employee representative shall leave his or her duty or work station or assignment without specific approval of the department head or other authorized city management official.

(b) That any such meeting is subject to scheduling by city management in a manner consistent with operating needs and work schedules.

Nothing provided herein, however, shall limit or restrict city management from scheduling such meetings before or after regular duty or work hours under appropriate circumstances.

(Ord. No. 2396, § 24, 11-19-19)

The city will make available to employee organizations such non-confidential information pertaining to employment relations as is contained in the public records of the agency, subject to the limitations and conditions set forth in this rule and Government Code Sections 6250—6260.

Such information shall be made available during regular office hours in accordance with the city's rules and procedures for making public records available and after payment of reasonable costs, where applicable.

Information which shall be made available to employee organizations includes regularly published data covering subjects under discussion. Data collected on a promise to keep its source confidential may be made available in statistical summaries, but shall not be made available in such form as to disclose the source.

Nothing in this rule will be construed to require disclosure of records that are:

(a) Personnel, medical and similar files, the disclosure of which would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy or be contrary to merit system principles;

(b) Working papers, notes or memoranda which are not retained in the ordinary course of business or any records where the public interest served by not making the record available clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure of the record;

(c) Records pertaining to pending litigations to which the city is a party, or to claims or appeals which have not been settled; and

(d) Nothing in this rule shall be construed as requiring the city to do research for an inquirer or to do programming or assemble data in a manner other than usually done by the city.

(Ord. No. 2396, § 25, 11-19-19)