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 Bill Text - AB-340 Employer-employee relations: confidential communications. 

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 |Add To My Favorites |Track Bill | Version: 03/05/25 - Amended Assembly
 01/28/25 - Introduced

 AB-340 Employer-employee relations: confidential communications. (2025-2026)

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 Date Published: 03/05/2025 09:00 PM

AB340:v98#DOCUMENTBill Start

 Amended
 IN 
 Assembly
 March 05, 2025

 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

 Assembly Bill

No. 340

Introduced by Assembly Member Ahrens

January 28, 2025

An act to amend Sections 3506.5, 3519, 3543.5, and 3571 of the Government Code, and to amend Section 28858 of the Public Utilities add Section 3558.9 to the Government Code, relating to employer-employee relations. 

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

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.

Digest Key

 Vote:
 MAJORITY 
 Appropriation:
 NO 
 Fiscal Committee:
 YES 
 Local Program:
 NO 

Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 3558.9 is added to the Government Code, to read:

3558.9.

 (a) (1) A public employer shall not question a public employee, a representative of a recognized employee organization, or an exclusive representative regarding communications made in confidence between a public employee and the representative in connection with representation relating to any matter within the scope of the recognized employee organization’s representation.

(2) Paragraph (1) is intended to be consistent with, and not in conflict with, William S. Hart Union High School District (2018) PERB Dec. No. 2595.

(b) A public employer shall not compel a public employee, a representative of a recognized employee organization, or an exclusive
 representative to disclose to a third party, communications made in confidence between a public employee and the representative in connection with representation relating to any matter within the scope of the recognized employee organization’s representation.

(c) Notwithstanding subdivisions (a) and (b), this section does not apply to a criminal investigation and does not supersede Section 3303.

SECTION 1.The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(a)It is the intent of the Legislature, in enacting this act, to establish an employee-union representative privilege in the context of California public employment.

(b)As with the attorney-client privilege, there is a strong interest in encouraging an employee accused of wrongdoing to communicate fully and frankly with their union representative, in order to receive accurate advice about the disciplinary process. The expectation of confidentiality is critical to the empl