REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Adopt a Council Policy on Labor Negotiations Guidelines
Report
BACKGROUND
A new Council policy 7.3.29, entitled "Council Labor Negotiations Protocol," was proposed at the Council meeting on April 29, 2014 as a public hearing agenda item (RTC 14-0394). The policy as proposed on April 29, 2014 is included as Attachment 1 to this report.
The City distributed copies of the proposed policy and RTC 14-0394 to all the bargaining unit presidents on April 25, 2014. Two of the City's six bargaining units, Sunnyvale Employees' Association (SEA) and Sunnyvale Managers Association (SMA), requested to have RTC 14-0394 removed from the April 29, 2014 Council meeting agenda, and requested to meet and provide their comments to the City Council before the City Council taking action. Rather than pulling this item from the agenda, the Director of Human Resources encouraged the bargaining unit presidents to attend the Council meeting on April 29, 2014 and provide their comments to the City Council during the public hearing.
Four bargaining unit representatives provided their comments at the Council meeting. Two representatives expressed concern on the proposed policy statement number 5, stating that it was too broad and eliminated bargaining units' involvement with any elected official during labor negotiations. Two representatives felt that bargaining units should be able to deliver the labor's point of view to the City Council during labor negotiations, same as the City's negotiation representatives.
The City Council voted 6-1 to defer the agenda to the Council meeting on May 20, 2014, to provide the bargaining unit associations an opportunity to provide input on the policy.
EXISTING POLICY
Collective bargaining is governed by the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (Gov't Code ??3500 et seq.); Chapter 3, Article 9 of the City's Administrative Policy Manual on Employer-Employee Relations; and Sunnyvale Municipal Code (SMC) Chapter...
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