MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN
COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA AND
SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL 620

Pursuant to the provisions of Government Code Sections 3500-3510 and Santa Barbara County Resolution 75-743, agreement has been reached between the County of Santa Barbara (hereinafter referred to as "County") and Service Employees International Union, Local 620 (hereinafter referred to as "Union") recognized as the majority bargaining representative for the following representation units:

It is the general purpose of this Memorandum of Understanding to promote the mutual interest of the County and its employees and to establish rates of pay, and certain other terms and conditions of employment.

SECTION 1. Recognition

Pursuant to the provisions of the County Employee Relations Resolution 75-743 and applicable State law, the County of Santa Barbara hereby recognizes the Service Employees International Union, Local 620 as the certified majority representative of the employees in each of the above representation units. The term "employee" or "employees" as used herein shall refer only to employees employed by the County (excluding temporary or extra help) as well as such classes of employees as may be added hereafter through the provisions of the County's Employer-Employee Relations Resolution or applicable State law.

The Union agrees to provide the County's Human Resources Director with a list of Union officers and representatives who are authorized to meet and confer in good faith. The Union shall also provide the above officials with a list of all authorized staff representatives. In addition, the Union shall provide a list of stewards who can post materials on behalf of the Union. These lists shall be kept current by the Union.

SECTION 2. Non-Discrimination

The provisions of this Memorandum shall be applied equally to all employees covered hereby without discrimination because of race, color, sex, age and marital status (except as provided by law), disability, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, or Union membership or non-membership.

SECTION 3. Rights of the Parties

A. County Rights

The County retains, among other management rights, the exclusive right to determine the methods, means, and personnel by which County government operations are to be conducted, as well as to exercise complete control and discretion over its organization, operations, and technology of performing its work; to determine the mission, function and necessity of all or part of each of its constituent departments, boards and commissions and take all necessary actions to carry out their mission, functions and necessity, or any part thereof, as well as set standards of service to the public.

It also retains the sole right to administer the Civil Service system, to classify or reclassify positions, add or delete positions or classes to or from the Salary Ordinance; to establish standards for employment, promotion, and transfer of employees; to direct its employees, establish rules and regulations, take disciplinary action for proper cause, to establish work schedules and work assignments, contract out work, transfer work out of the unit, and to relieve its employees from duty for lack of work or other legitimate reasons. The County retains the right to be the sole judge, subject to its Civil Service Rules and Procedures, of the qualification and competence of its officers and employees.

Before implementing any decisions to contract out work or to transfer work out of the unit, the County shall notify the Union and upon request, negotiate the decision and the impact of such decision on employees' terms and conditions of employment, to the extent such terms and conditions are within the scope of representation.

For purposes of this agreement, "contracting out work" and "transferring work out of the unit" refer to situations in which the County decides to contract out or transfer work out of the unit pursuant to State law which was provided by County employees in June 1989 and which results in the layoff, reduction in hours or otherwise directly impacts the wages, hours or other terms and conditions of employment (within scope of representation) of County employees. Furthermore, "contracting out work" and "transferring work out of the unit", shall also refer to situations in which vacant bargaining unit positions are contracted out or transferred out of the unit.

If the Union requests to negotiate a decision to contract out work or transfer work out of the unit, the subjects of bargaining shall include: the reasons, the expected financial impact and the anticipated impact on the quality of services provided.

The County shall have the right to initiate the foregoing contracting out procedure three times during each year (July, October and February). If the decision to contract out services would result in an employee being subject to layoff, the contract shall not be implemented any earlier than 30 days after notice to the Union, unless the parties mutually agree.

The County reserves the right to take whatever action may be necessary in an emergency situation; however, a Recognized Employee Organization affected by the action shall be notified promptly of any such emergency action which affects matters within the scope of the representation.

This section is not intended to restrict consultation with employees or employee representatives about the practical consequences that decisions on these matters may have on wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment.

B. Employee Rights

Employees of the County shall have the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation of all matters of employee relations. Employees shall also have the right to represent themselves individually in their employment relations with the County. No employee shall be interfered with, intimidated, restrained, coerced, unduly influenced or discriminated against because of his/her exercise of these rights.

Management employees shall not represent non-management employees on matters within the scope of representation. Confidential employees shall not represent non-confidential employees on matters within the scope of representation. This provision does not otherwise limit the right of confidential employees to be members of and to hold office in employee organizations of their choice.

Employees’ rights and obligations regarding use of the County’s computers and computing resources are governed by the County’s Acceptable Use Policy. The parties agree that occasional and incidental use of County computing resources for union business is allowable within the parameters of the Acceptable Use Policy, so long as such use does not interfere with the performance of work duties, the effective delivery of services, result in any cost to the County, or unduly compromise the security of County systems.

SECTION 4. Union Security

A. The County will deduct the dues and insurance premiums from employees in the above-mentioned representation units who have authorized said dues deductions and insurance premiums in writing on forms prescribed by the Auditor-Controller and will transmit such deductions to the Union.

The County shall provide deduction reports including: deduction code, employee name, employee ID number, budget unit, bargaining unit, salary range number, pay step, amount deducted, year to date deductions and LOA status.

B. Payroll/Dues deductions from employees represented by the Union shall be changed quarterly by the County upon written authorization from the Union, when author- ized in advance by the employee. Payroll deductions for Union insurance and benefit programs shall be changed by the County upon written authorization from the Union when authorized in advance by the employee.

C. Maintenance of Membership - All regular unit employees who on the effective date of this MOU are members of the Union in good standing and all such employees who thereafter voluntarily become members of the Union shall maintain their membership in the Union in good standing during the term of this MOU, subject however, to the right to resign from membership during Pay Period 17 annually.

The County will not honor cancellations of dues deductions for employees covered by this Agreement during the term of the MOU except during the window period specified above. Any Union member may exercise his/her right to resign by submitting a notice in writing to the Union and to the County during the resignation period.

When the Auditor-Controller receives a written request to cancel membership in the Union, the Auditor will promptly fax a copy of the notice to the Union. If the Auditor-Controller does not receive notice from the employee that he/she has rescinded the cancellation request within four (4) work days of faxing the request to the Union, the Department will proceed to implement the dues cancellation. The Auditor-Controller will accept oral requests from the employee to rescind the notice provided the employee subsequently confirms the rescission in writing.

Cancellation forms received by the County from employees covered by this Agreement outside of the resignation period described above shall be transmitted to the Union in the usual manner and time frames. The Union shall then promptly provide any and all members for whom it has received a cancellation form a letter explaining the Maintenance of Membership provision, a copy of the MOU and a reference to this Section of the agreement describing the window period. The County shall refrain from any notice regarding the window period, but may respond to questions from employees.

Union members who cancel their membership during the term of this MOU shall be required to pay an agency fee if an agency shop provision is in effect in the unit member's bargaining unit, unless the employee qualifies for a religious exemption set forth under subsection D(3) below.

D. Agency Shop

Agency shop as used in this section means an organizational security agreement as defined in Government Code Section 3502.5 and applicable law.

1. Implementation Elections - These agency shop provisions shall only go into effect in one or more units if a majority of those unit members actually voting in an agency shop election so vote.

The parties shall, upon request by the Union, jointly participate in scheduling secret ballot agency shop elections. The elections shall be tallied separately by bargaining unit. These elections shall be by secret mail ballot conducted by the State Mediation and Conciliation Service. The Union shall bear all costs of conducting implementation elections. The Union shall have the right to one implementation election per eligible bargaining unit per year during the term of this agreement.

2. Agency Fees - Following the State Mediation and Conciliation Service's certification of approval of agency shop election results, each employee in such a bargaining unit shall be required within thirty 30 days of notice by the union describing their rights and obligations or, within thirty (30) days of his/her first day of employment in the unit, whichever comes first, to: a) become a member in good standing of the Union; or, b) satisfy the agency fee financial obligations set forth below, unless he/she qualifies for the religious exemption set forth in subsection 3 below.

These obligations apply to all employees assigned to such bargaining units, whether the assignment is a result of hire, transfer, or reassignment.

Unless the employee has: a) voluntarily submitted to the County an effective dues deduction request; b) individually made direct financial arrangements satisfactory to the Union as evidenced by notice of the same by the Union to the County; or, c) qualified for exemption upon religious grounds as provided below, upon notice from the Union the County shall process a mandatory agency fee payroll deduction in the appropriate amount and forward that amount to the Union.

The amount of the fee to be charged shall be determined by the Union subject to applicable law; and shall therefore be an amount not to exceed the normal periodic membership dues, initiation fee, and general assessments applicable to Union members.

As to non-members objecting to the Union spending their agency fee on matters unrelated to collective bargaining and contract administration, the amount of the agency fee charged shall not reflect expenditures which the Courts have determined to be non-chargeable, including political contributions to candidates and parties, members only benefits, charitable contributions and ideological expenditures and, to the extent prohibited by law, shall not reflect expenditures for certain aspects of lobbying, ballot measures, publications, organizing and litigation.

The Union shall comply with applicable law regarding disclosure and allocation of its expenses, notice to employees of their right to object, provision for agency fee payers to challenge the Union's determinations of amounts chargeable to the objecting non-members, and appropriate escrow provisions to hold contested amounts while the challenges are underway.

The Union shall make available, at its expense, an expeditious administrative appeals procedure to unit employees who object to the payment of any portion of the representation service fee. Such procedure shall provide for a prompt decision to be made by an impartial decision-maker jointly selected by the Union and the objecting employee(s). A copy of such procedure shall be made available upon request by the Union to unit employees and the County.

The foregoing description of permissible agency fee charges and related procedures is included herein for informational purposes and is not intended to change applicable law. The County will promptly remit to the Union all monies deducted, accompanied by a list of employees for whom such deductions have been made.

The County will make every effort to distribute to each new employee in a unit in which an agency shop provision is in effect, a letter supplied by the Union which describes the agency fee obligation.

3. Religious Exemption from Agency Fee Obligations

a. Any employee who is a member of a religious body whose traditional tenets or teachings include objections to joining or financially supporting employee organizations shall not be required to meet the above agency fee obligations, but shall pay by means of mandatory payroll deduction an amount equal to the agency fee (proportionate share of the Union's cost of legally authorized representational services), to a non-religious, non-labor charitable organization exempt from taxation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, as designated by the employee from a list provided by the County Auditor-Controller.

b. To qualify for the religious exemption the employee must provide to the Union, with a copy to the County, a written statement of objection, along with verifiable evidence of membership in a religious body as described above. The County will implement the change in status within thirty days unless notified by the Union that the requested exemption is not valid.

c. Any of the above-described payment obligations shall be processed by the County in the usual and customary manner and time-frames.

4. Leave Without Pay/Temporary Assignment Out of Unit - Employees on an unpaid leave of absence or temporarily assigned out of a unit covered by an agency shop agreement for an entire pay period or more shall have agency shop fees suspended for the period of the leave or temporary assignment only and such an employee shall have agency fees reinstated upon return. Fee deductions shall have the same priority as dues deductions in the current hierarchy for partially compensated pay periods.

5. Rescission of Agency Shop - An agency shop provision may be rescinded pursuant to the provisions contained in Government Code Section 3502.5(b). Rescission elections shall be conducted by the State Mediation and Conciliation Service using procedures utilized for implementation elections, e.g., secret mail ballot, limitation on voting period, posting of notices, limits on employer communications, etc. The County shall bear all costs of conducting rescission elections.

6. Indemnification/Hold Harmless Clause - The Union agrees to fully indemnify and defend the County and its officers, employees and agents against any and all claims, proceedings and liability arising, directly or indirectly out of any action taken or not taken by or on behalf of the County under this Section.

E. The Union agrees to indemnify, defend, and hold the County harmless against any claims made of any nature and against any suit instituted against the County arising from its check off for the dues, insurance or benefit programs of the Union, or its failure to do so.

F. The County will provide a copy of the new hire list, termination list, and bargaining unit change list each pay period to the Union. The lists will include employee name, date of hire/termination/or bargaining unit change, work city code, classification code, department code, and representation unit code. For this service the Union agrees to reimburse the incurred costs of $52 per fiscal year to the County.

G. The County agrees to provide the Union with mailing labels containing the names, department name, job class title and number and worksite location code for all employees within Union represented units once each fiscal year during the term of this agreement. The Union agrees to pay the incurred cost of $50.00 each year for these mailing labels. The County agrees to provide the Union with County e-mail addresses for represented employees and to update the list quarterly upon request from the Union.

H. The County agrees to provide the Union, upon request and once per year, a listing of non-objecting unit members' names and home addresses. Objecting employees shall utilize the procedure outlined in the sideletter between the parties on this subject.

I. The Union shall have the right to make a twenty (20) minute presentation to new hires at scheduled Countywide orientations. The presentation shall not include any statements or materials of a defamatory nature. The Union presentation shall be scheduled as the first order of business after the lunch break.

SECTION 5. Bulletin Boards

A. The County shall provide designated bulletin board space on existing bulletin boards for the Union, the size and location to be determined jointly by departmental management and the Union. All materials to be posted must be non-defamatory in nature, must be approved and signed by a Union official and shall be used for the following subjects:

1. Union recreational, social and related news bulletins;
2. Scheduled meetings;
3. Information concerning Union elections or the results thereof;
4. Reports of official business of the Union, including reports of committee or the Board of Directors.

B. In cases where the Union, in whole or part, represents more than one bargaining unit at a work location, the space described above will become the bulletin board space for all employees represented by the Union at the work location.

C. The Union may continue to maintain and use the two (2) bulletin boards previously placed in the Administration Building and the North County Cook Street Office. The use of these bulletin boards shall be governed by A above.

SECTION 6. Maintenance of Benefits

Except as set forth in this Memorandum of Understanding, and unless the Union agrees to reopen negotiations on a particular bargaining subject, the County and the Union agree that there shall be no changes during the life of this Memorandum of Understanding in the wage rates, benefits, or other terms and conditions of employment subject to the meet and confer process established by this Memorandum of Understanding or by any County Regulation, Ordinance or Resolution, except by mutual agreement of the parties, or as required by Federal or State law or regulations. The County agrees to meet and confer with the Union on discretionary matters where mandatory changes in Federal or State law would significantly affect terms and conditions of employment within the scope of representation for employees covered by this Memorandum of Understanding.

The County or the Department shall notify the Union of any proposed change in County Rules, Regulations, Ordinances or Resolutions on subjects which are beyond the scope of the meet and confer process, but the practical application of which directly affects employees represented by the Union. The County agrees to meet and consult with the Union on any such proposals, upon request of the Union.