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AB 1941 – Local Public Employee Organizations – POBRA Recovery for Representation of Conscientious Objectors

CATEGORY: Client Update for Public Agencies, Fire Watch, Law Enforcement Briefing Room
CLIENT TYPE: Public Employers, Public Safety
DATE: Oct 23, 2024

The Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act (POBRA) grants certain employment rights to public safety officers. The Firefighters Procedural Bill of Rights Act (FPBRA) correspondingly grants certain employment rights to firefighters.

The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA) generally governs collective bargaining of local represented employees and along with other existing law, gives public employees the right to refuse to join or participate in the activities of employee organizations, and provides that employees who are members of a bona fide religion, body, or sect that has historically held conscientious objections to joining or financially supporting public employee organizations are not required to join or financially support a public employee organization as a condition of employment.

Both represented and non-represented employees may find themselves subject to an employer’s discipline, grievance, arbitration or administrative proceedings. Under existing law, an employee organization may charge a non-member employee covered by the FPBRA for the reasonable cost of representation when the employee holds a conscientious objection, as described above, or declines membership in the organization and requests individual representation in a discipline, grievance, arbitration, or administrative hearing from the organization.

Assembly Bill 1941 (AB 1941) authorizes an employee organization to charge an employee covered by the POBRA for the reasonable cost of representation when an employee holds a conscientious objection or declines membership in the organization and requests individual representation in a discipline, grievance, arbitration, or administrative hearing from the organization.

Like the existing provision under the FBPRA, the law applies this authorization only to proceedings for which the recognized employee organization does not exclusively control the process.

(AB 1941 adds section 3503.2 to the Government Code.)

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