Amended  IN  Assembly  May 25, 2018
Amended  IN  Assembly  March 22, 2018

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2017–2018 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill No. 2751

Introduced by Assembly Member Mark Stone

February 16, 2018

An act to add Section 1150.5 1149.3 to the Labor Code, relating to agricultural labor relations.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 2751, as amended, Mark Stone. Agricultural labor relations: collective bargaining: mediation. relations.
Existing law, the Alatorre-Zenovich-Dunlap-Berman Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, grants agricultural employees the right to form and join labor organizations and engage in collective bargaining with respect to wages, terms of employment, and other employment conditions. The act creates the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. Board (ALRB).

The act provides a mediation procedure applicable to specified agricultural employers and a labor organization certified as the exclusive bargaining agent of a bargaining unit of agricultural employees. Under the act, either party is permitted to file with the board, following a specified period, a declaration that the parties have failed to reach a collective bargaining agreement. The act requires the board, upon receipt of a declaration pursuant to this procedure, to immediately issue an order directing the parties to mandatory mediation and conciliation with an appointed mediator of the issues for a specified period.

The act requires the mediator, if the parties do not resolve the issues to their mutual satisfaction, to certify that the mediation process has been exhausted and requires the mediator to file a report with the board that resolves all issues between the parties and establishes the final terms of a collective bargaining agreement. The act permits either party, within a specified period, to petition the board to review the mediator’s report, and requires the mediator’s report to become the final order of the board, unless the board accepts the petition for review.

The act prohibits agricultural employers and labor organizations from engaging in unfair labor practices, as defined, and empowers the ALRB to prevent any person from engaging in those practices.
This bill would require the board to conduct and complete an expedited study by January 31, 2019, on how to eliminate delays and expedite the implementation of collective bargaining agreements ordered by the board after the completion of the mandatory mediation procedures and would require the board to provide for recommendations and adopt regulations to implement any recommendations by June 1, 2019. ALRB to process to final board order, within one year, all decisions concerning make-whole awards, backpay, and other monetary awards to employees, or any board order finding liability for an award, unless the ALRB makes a specified certification to the parties.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 1149.3 is added to the Labor Code, to read:

1149.3.
 (a) The board shall process to final board order all decisions concerning make-whole awards, backpay, and other monetary awards to employees, within one year of any board order finding liability for that award, unless the board certifies to the parties that there is good cause for exceeding this time limit and provides a reasoned explanation for the assertion of good cause.
(b) If the board has already made a finding that an employer is liable for a make-whole, backpay, or other monetary award to an employee or employees, and a compliance proceeding is necessary to determine the specific amount owed by the employer, the board shall process to final board order a decision concerning the amount or amounts owed within one year of the time that a final decision on employer liability has been made by the board, unless the board certifies to the parties that there is good cause for exceeding this time limit and provides a reasoned explanation for the assertion of good cause. For purposes of this subdivision, “final decision on employer liability” means either the date when a board order concerning liability becomes final because no appeal was sought or the date when a reviewing court dismisses an employer’s appeal or decides in favor of the board concerning the employer’s liability.
(c) If an employer’s liability and compliance proceedings are consolidated, the board shall act reasonably and without delay in reaching a final decision concerning the liability and amounts owed to workers, and shall explain to the parties any good cause for delay.

SECTION 1.Section 1150.5 is added to the Labor Code, to read:
1150.5.

The board shall conduct and complete an expedited study by January 31, 2019, on how to eliminate delays and expedite the implementation of collective bargaining agreements ordered by the board after the completion of the mandatory mediation and conciliation procedures in Chapter 6.5 (commencing with Section 1164). The board shall provide for recommendations and adopt regulations to implement any recommendations by June 1, 2019.