Employer-employee relations: confidential communications.

Plain English Breakdown

The enforcement mechanisms and penalties for violations of this law are not specified in the provided source material.

Confidential Communications Between Employees and Representatives

This law stops employers from asking employees about private talks they had with their representatives, unless it's for a criminal investigation or when specific conditions apply to public safety officers.

What This Bill Does

• Prohibits local public agency employers, state employers, public school employers, higher education employers, and the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District from questioning employees about confidential communications between an employee and their representative.
• Prevents these employers from compelling employees or representatives to disclose confidential communications to third parties.

Who It Names or Affects

• Public sector employers including local agencies, state entities, public schools, higher education institutions, and the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District.
• Employees of these organizations who communicate privately with their representatives.

Terms To Know

Confidential communications

Private talks between an employee and a representative that are meant to stay secret.

Employee organization

A group of employees who join together to represent their interests, like a union.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not apply in cases involving criminal investigations or specific conditions related to public safety officer investigations.
• It is unclear how this law will be enforced and what the consequences are for employers who violate it.

Official Summary Text

AB 340, as amended, Ahrens.
Employer-employee relations: confidential communications.
Existing law that governs the labor relations of public employees and employers,
including
including, among others,
the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act, the Ralph C. Dills Act, provisions relating to public schools,
and
provisions relating to higher education,
and provisions relating to the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District,
prohibits employers from taking certain actions relating to employee organization, including imposing or threatening to impose reprisals on employees, discriminating or threatening
to discriminate against employees, or otherwise interfering with, restraining, or coercing employees because of their exercise of their guaranteed rights. Those provisions of existing law further prohibit denying to employee organizations the rights guaranteed to them by existing law.
This bill would
also
prohibit a
local public agency employer, a state employer, a
public school employer, a higher education employer, or the district
public employer
from questioning
any employee or employee representative
a public employee, a representative of a recognized employee organization, or an exclusive representative
regarding communications made in confidence between an employee and an employee representative in connection with representation relating to any matter within the scope of the recognized employee organization’s representation.
The bill would also prohibit a public employer from compelling a public employee, a representative of a recognized employee organization, or an exclusive
representative to disclose those confidential communications to a third party. The bill would not apply to a criminal investigation or when a public safety officer is under investigation and certain circumstances exist.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF