Employment: labor organization and unfair practices.

Assembly Member McKinnor anchors a comprehensive reform to protect workers’ rights to organize by expanding the Public Employment Relations Board’s authority to safeguard and enforce rights when federal mechanisms are insufficient or ceded jurisdictionally. The measure adds new, state-level pathways for workers to contest unfair labor practices and to pursue recognition and bargaining remedies through PERB, including civil penalties and a dedicated Enforcement Fund to support administration of these provisions. It also codifies a framework for confidential handling of supporting materials submitted to PERB and establishes that the board may rely on NLRA precedents as persuasive authority, while preserving the board’s discretion not to follow them in every instance.

A central element of the bill is the creation of enhanced procedures for pursuing relief. Covered workers or their representatives would file an unfair-practice charge or petition with PERB, including identifying information for the charging party and respondent and, when applicable, the original NLRB charge or petition with supporting materials. PERB would hold such documentation confidential, shield it from public records requests, and prioritize processing when resource constraints or deadlines might impede timely action. The measure also authorizes PERB to order a range of remedies, including injunctive relief, binding arbitration to finalize a collective bargaining agreement after six months of deadlock, and civil penalties for pattern-and-practice violations, with enforcement via the new Public Employment Relations Board Enforcement Fund. A structured timeline governs category-based processing priorities beginning in 2026 and expanding to broader categories in 2027, with provisions to reorder cases if resources are insufficient to meet statutory deadlines.

The bill redefines and consolidates California’s labor-relations framework in several respects. It designates PERB as the lead body for specified rights under the NLRA when the federal mechanism is unavailable or constrained, and it introduces a parallel, state-level track for representation petitions and unfair-labor-practice decisions. It also places new exclusive jurisdiction for agricultural labor matters under the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, while allowing the ALRB to follow NLRA precedents as persuasive authority but without mandatory adherence when appropriate. A separate provision grants PERB exclusive jurisdiction to determine whether persons or entities meet the definitions that relate to these provisions, and it adds a separate allowance for the board to follow NLRA precedents in interpreting those definitions. Finally, the measure creates a severability clause and specifies that certain findings and limitations regarding access to confidential information and public records apply to the new provisions, framing the policy as a state-driven mechanism to complement, rather than supplant, federal labor protections.