Public transit employer-employee relations: San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District.

(1) Existing law contains provisions relating to employer-employee relations between the state and its employees, public schools and their employees, local public agencies and their employees, and postsecondary educational institutions and their employees. The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act, in this regard, generally governs employer-employee relations between local public agencies and their employees. Existing laws provide these public employees with the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations for the purpose of representation on all matters of employer-employee relations. The selected employee organization has the right to represent its members on all matters of employer-employee relations, including disputes. Existing law also prescribes the powers and duties of public transit districts, including administering employer-employee relations. The courts have held that the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act, pertaining to employer-employee relations between local public agencies and their employees, does not apply to public transit districts that have a statutorily prescribed method of administering employer-employee relations that was in existence at the time the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act was enacted. This bill would give employees within the supervisory units of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purposes of representation on all employer-employee relations matters and would permit these employees to meet, confer, and enter into memoranda of understanding for these purposes pursuant to the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act. The bill would provide that the act governs these employer-employee relations and that they are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of, and are to be administered by, the Public Employment Relations Board. By increasing the duties of local public transit officials, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. (2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.