Page 6 - 2018 Janus Toolkit CCD

SB 866 OVERVIEW

FIRM OVERVIEW California lawmakers have approved a budget trailer bill that imposes new obligations on

Practice Areas public sector employers related to deducting union dues and fees from workers’ paychecks.
Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill (SB) 866 on the same day the United States
Charter Schools
Community Colleges Supreme Court barred the collection of mandatory agency fees that cover unions’ cost of
Facilities & Business providing services, which the Court deemed a violation of workers’ First Amendment free
Labor & Employment speech rights.
Litigation
Local Government/
Special Districts The Governor signed the bill, which combines the language of several other pieces of pend-
Public Finance
Public Safety ing legislation intended to protect public agency unions, on June 27, 2018. Like all budget
Special Education bills, the provisions in SB 866 became effectively immediately.
Students
Technology & Innovation
DUES PROCESSING

Statewide SB 866 standardizes dues processing requirements across public agency unions and
Bakersfield expands the requirements to include employees of the Judicial Council, and also public
Fresno transit district employees who are not already covered by a specific collective bargaining
Los Angeles law. The bill also covers municipal employees and both certificated and classified employ-
Mission Viejo
Monterey ees who work for public school and community college district employers.
Sacramento
San Diego
Walnut Creek SB 866 imposes explicit requirements on public agency employers and generally makes
unions responsible for portions of the dues collection process. Specifically, the bill:

> Authorizes employee organizations, bona fide associations and both current and re-
tired public agency employees to request payroll deductions and requires employers to
honor such requests.
> Specifies that revocation of an authorization must be determined by the terms of the
authorization and requires public employers to direct employee requests to cancel or
change deductions to the employee organization.
> Clarifies the period in which payroll deductions commence after the employee organi-
zation notifies the public employer that it has written authorization for the deductions.
> Bars a public employer from requiring an employee organization to submit a copy of
a written authorization before commencing payroll deductions, unless a dispute arises
about the existence or terms of the authorization.
> Requires unions to indemnify public employers against claims regarding dues deduc-
tions made in reliance on information provided by the union.
> For academic employees only, permits public agencies to recover, from the dues and
fees transmitted to the union, the actual reasonable cost of making the deductions.

SB 866 Overview LozanoSmith.com