UPEC FIGHTS CITY HALL!

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Pacific Grove City Council Votes to Cut Employee Rights

Pacific Grove - UPEC Representative Rick Burruss attended a meeting of the Pacific Grove City Council July 2nd to argue to the Council that it should not approve an Ordinance Change that would make all City employees “at will” subject to the City Manager’s discretion. Burruss explained to the Council that their action would violate the State Constitution and case law whereby California public employees have a “property interest” in their positions once they pass initial probation. The property interest that employees enjoy requires a due process procedure for any discipline to be legal. Despite UPEC’s presentation, and presentations from other City bargaining units including police and fire associations, the City Council voted 4-3 to approve the proposed ordinance.

At issue is the City Charter which indeed does include an “at will” statement.

In light of the City Council’s vote, UPEC Business Manager Chris Darker directed staff and legal counsel Goyette and Associates to take all appropriate legal and political action to protect and reinstate our member’s permanent status job protections. For starters, Senior Labor Representative Steve Allen will use the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) on line form to file an Unfair Practice Charge against the City for unilaterally changing a negotiable condition of employment without completing the bargaining process.

On another matter, the City Council also considered placing an advisory measure on the November ballot to ask citizens to vote on whether or not the City should drop out of PERS and instead enroll employees in a 457 deferred compensation plan. This was seen by UPEC as a back door approach to eliminating PERS over the next several years. Rick Burruss and other association representatives also addressed the Council on this topic and thankfully persuaded the Council to drop the ballot attempt, this time on a 4-3 vote in our favor,

Good job, Rick! We will stay on top of this important issue of job security for our members.