FINAL BILL REPORT

ESB 6229

This analysis was prepared by non-partisan legislative staff for the use of legislative members in their deliberations. This analysis is not a part of the legislation nor does it constitute a statement of legislative intent.

Brief Description: Requiring employers to provide exclusive bargaining representatives reasonable access to new employees for the purposes of presenting information about their exclusive bargaining representative.

Background: Some public sector collective bargaining agreements contain provisions that allow a union representative to make a presentation to new employees at employee orientations. Generally, new employee access provisions are bargained for in the collective bargaining process, and the agreement may specify how much time a union representative has, as well as the locations and times of the presentations to new employees.

Last year, California passed legislation that requires public sector employers to provide union representatives access to new employee orientations for the purposes of communicating the rights and obligations created by the contract and the role of the union representative.

Summary: Under state collective bargaining law, an employer must provide the exclusive bargaining representative reasonable access to new employees of the bargaining unit for the purpose of presenting information about the exclusive bargaining representative to the new employees. The presentation may occur at a new employee orientation or at another time mutually agreed to by the employer and the bargaining representative. No employee may be mandated to attend the meetings or presentations by the exclusive bargaining representative.

Reasonable access means that the access occurs within 90 days of the employee's start date and the access is for no less than 30 minutes. However, an employer may agree to longer and more frequent new employee access. The access must occur during the employee's regular work hours at the employee's regular worksite, unless another time and place is mutually agreed to by the employer and bargaining representative.

Votes on Final Passage:

Senate	27	20
House	58	40