Ensuring Union Access to Public Sector Workers at New Employee Orientations (SB 191)

A union is its members. An employee organization must be able to access and empower workers, who in turn come together to improve the conditions in their workplace. Senate Bill 191 holds potential as a powerful organizing tool by ensuring a union’s right to access newly employed public sector workers in person at the worksite during working hours. 

Under prior law, public employers were already required to provide the union access to its new employee orientations or “NEOs,” if and when they occurred. However, prior law did not give specifics as to how and when union access must be provided. Instead, it was simply up to the public employer and the union to negotiate over the “structure, time, and manner” of access to NEOs.

SB 191 clarifies that, for employees working onsite, NEOs are required within 30 days of hire into the bargaining unit. The bill does not mandate NEOs for public employees who work remotely. If the public employer itself does not schedule the NEO, the union is empowered to do so. Thus, at the union or public employer’s direction, newly hired employees are relieved from their other duties to attend the meeting. However, employee attendance is not mandatory. Employees are simply provided the opportunity to attend the NEO during work hours. During this meeting, the union can communicate with the new hires for up to 30 minutes on paid time. The employer must also provide the union an appropriate meeting space for this purpose within 7 days of the union requesting it.

Where employers and unions have entered into agreements in side letters or in their MOUs to allow the union more than 30 minutes of paid time to conduct union presentations, these agreements will remain in effect. In fact, SB 191 allows for public employers and employee representatives to waive or modify any of the specific requirements of this bill by mutual agreement. If you have language in a labor contract or side letter that is less favorable than this new law, we recommend that you demand to meet and confer with the employer over the implementation of the new law. 

This new version of the NEO law is effective immediately because it was passed as a part of a budget trailer bill.

SB 191 addresses disruptions in member recruitment caused by the pandemic. During the pandemic, some employers failed to hold NEOs altogether, held them late in the new employee’s employment, or only held them virtually. This new version of the NEO law is only in effect until June 30, 2025, at which point the law will return to a slightly modified version of the NEO bill, which has been in effect since 2017.

Thanks to SB 191’s invaluable guarantees, more public employees will have access to vital information regarding their right to collectively organize. 

If you have any questions, please direct them to your labor law counsel.