2023 California Code › Government Code - GOV › TITLE 1 - GENERAL › DIVISION 4 - PUBLIC OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES › CHAPTER 12.5 - Legislature Employer-Employee Relations › Section 3599.52.

3599.52. For purposes of this chapter:
(a) “Board” means the Public Employment Relations Board. The powers and duties of the board described in Section 3541.3 also apply, as appropriate, to this chapter, except as otherwise provided in this chapter. Notwithstanding this chapter or any other law, the board shall not intrude upon or interfere with the Legislature’s core function of efficient and effective lawmaking or the essential operation of the Legislature.
(b) (1) “Employee” means any employee respectively of either house of the Legislature, except all of the following:
(A) Members of the Legislature.
(B) Appointed officers of the Legislature, such as the Secretary of the Senate and the Chief Clerk of the Assembly.
(C) Department or office leaders, such as chiefs-of-staff, staff directors, and chief consultants. “Department or office leader” means any supervisory employee having authority, in the interest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees, or responsibility to direct them, or effectively to recommend this action, if, in connection with the foregoing, the exercise of any authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment.
(D) Confidential employees. “Confidential employee” means any employee who is required to develop or present management positions with respect to employer-employee relations or whose duties normally require access to confidential information contributing significantly to the development of management positions.
(E) Excluded employees.
(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the employer shall have the sole and exclusive authority to designate employees as department or office leaders, confidential employees, or excluded employees, as specified in subparagraphs (C) to (E), inclusive, of paragraph (1), except that department or office leaders, confidential employees, and excluded employees shall not, collectively, exceed one-third of the total employee positions authorized by the employer.
(c) “Employee organization” means any organization that includes employees and that has as one of its primary purposes representing these employees in their relations with the employer.
(d) “Employer” means the Assembly Committee on Rules or the Senate Committee on Rules. For the purposes of bargaining or meeting and conferring in good faith, “employer” means the Assembly Committee on Rules or the Senate Committee on Rules, or their designated representatives, acting with the authorization of their respective houses.
(e) “Maintenance of membership” means that all employees who voluntarily are, or who voluntarily become, members of a recognized employee organization shall remain members of that employee organization in good standing for a period as agreed to by the parties pursuant to a memorandum of understanding, commencing with the effective date of the memorandum of understanding. A maintenance of membership provision does not apply to any employee who within 30 days prior to the expiration of the memorandum of understanding withdraws from the employee organization by sending a signed withdrawal letter to the employee organization and a copy to the Controller’s office.
(f) “Mediation” means effort by an impartial third party to assist in reconciling a dispute regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment between representatives of the employer and the recognized employee organization or recognized employee organizations through interpretation, suggestion, and advice.
(g) “Recognized employee organization” means an employee organization that has been recognized by the employer as the exclusive representative of the employees in an appropriate unit.
(Added by Stats. 2023, Ch. 313, Sec. 1. (AB 1) Effective January 1, 2024. Operative July 1, 2026, pursuant to Sec. 3599.84.)