The Honorable Rick Zbur
Capitol Office:
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0051
RE: AB 1484 (Zbur) Temporary public employees – OPPOSE Dear Assembly Member Zbur:
The City of San Marcos is strongly opposed to Assembly Bill 1484. While AB 1484 is ostensibly intended to benefit temporary employees of local public agencies, in reality, it will directly harm these employees by severely limiting their future opportunities for temporary employment. This bill would mandate that temporary employees must be included within the same bargaining unit as permanent employees; and that the wages, hours, plus terms and conditions of employment for both temporary and permanent employees must be bargained together in a single memorandum of understanding. This result is already possible under current law, but only if the temporary and permanent employees have a "community of interest" making such combined treatment appropriate – an important component of fair representation and bargaining that this bill eschews.
More importantly, the provisions of this bill, including the restrictions on discharging temporary employees and the inevitable increases in cost to public employers, will seriously discourage public agencies from hiring temporary employees. This will reduce temporary employment opportunities statewide, with devastating effects. Temporary positions provide income, stability, and flexibility to working parents, students, and those just entering or re-entering the workforce, among others, and are often an important stepping-stone to long-term public employment. Disincentivizing public agencies from offering these positions will further cement the barriers to upward mobility and income equality for the very persons whom this bill aims to help.
In addition to harming temporary employees, AB 1484 would also negatively impact public services. "Extra help" employees are often retained for seasonal or “surge” needs, such as nurses, health care workers, election workers and parks and recreation staff, like lifeguards and summer camp counselors. This bill would significantly increase the costs for local governments to hire such employees, thereby reducing levels of service to the detriment of public health and well-being. Similarly, temporary employees are frequently brought in to backfill permanent employees who are on leave or temporarily reassigned. This bill would discourage such hiring, leaving positions unfilled and the public unserved.
Public agencies often offer paid student internship programs, which provide valuable work experience for the next generation of public employees. Requiring agencies to include such temporary positions within the bargaining unit (and afford them discharge protections) will strongly discourage local governments from offering such programs (or will encourage them to offer only unpaid internships, to the detriment of financially vulnerable students).
AB 1484 provides temporary employees with rights in excess of those provided to permanent employees. Proposed Section 3507.7(b)(5) provides that "temporary employees...who have been employed for more than 30 calendar days shall be entitled to use any grievance procedure in the memorandum of understanding to challenge any discipline without cause." By contrast, nearly every public agency has a probationary period for permanent employees (often 6-12 months), during which the employee may be released without cause and without triggering a grievance. This probationary period is a critical part of the hiring process – and if public employers cannot use this process for temporary employees, they will be vastly less likely to hire temporary employees.
In conclusion, temporary employees are brought in for a temporary and urgent need and the provisions of this bill severely limit local agencies’ ability to utilize this workforce, ultimately impacting our ability to provide services. We are unaware of a specific, current problem that AB 1484 would resolve or prevent. We are very much aware, however, of the very real harm AB 1484 would cause the residents of California.
For these reasons, the City of San Marcos regrets that it must respectfully oppose AB 1484. Please feel free to contact me at 760-744-1050, or [email protected].
Sincerely,
Rebecca D. Jones
Mayor
Cc: Members of the Assembly Public Employment and Retirement Committee Michael Bolden, Chief Consultant, Public Employment and Retirement Committee Lauren Prichard, Consultant, Assembly Republican Caucus 2 City Clerk
[email protected]