Existing law requires county offices of education and the governing boards of school districts and community college districts, except those incorporating the merit system, to employ persons for positions not requiring certification qualifications or that are not academic, as applicable, and to classify those employees and positions, and requires that they be known as the classified service, as provided.

This bill would require these governing boards and county offices, including those incorporating the merit system and including certain joint powers authorities formed by them, to offer vacancies for part-time or full-time positions, as a right of first refusal for 10 business days, with specified priorities, to current regular nonprobationary classified employees who meet the minimum job qualifications of the position or who could meet the minimum job qualifications before their start date, unless otherwise negotiated by the education employer and the exclusive representatives of the applicable employees. The bill would require these employers, referred to in the bill as education employers, to adhere to specified requirements, including, among others, that they provide all of their classified employees and their exclusive representatives notice of, and instructions for applying for, any new classified position, and that they not offer the position to any applicant until after the position has been noticed for 10 business days. The bill would authorize an employee who accepts a new assignment to elect to either add the hours for the new assignment to their current assignment, if feasible, or, if the new assignment is more hours than their current assignment, would authorize the employee to replace their current assignment with the new assignment, and would require the education employer to provide reasonable modifications to the assignment schedules to allow the employee to work both assignments, as provided. The bill would require an education employer to accept a current part-time employee’s number of years of service with the education employer, regardless of the capacity in which they were earned, when that part-time employee applies for an additional part-time assignment that requires a certain number of years of service. The bill would require classified employees who work part-time assignments that equal the number of hours for a full-time assignment for the same education employer to receive the same benefits as employees who work a full-time assignment. The bill would expressly prohibit retaliation against classified employees for either refusing or accepting a vacancy. The bill would prohibit applicants from being offered a vacancy if the total of the regular hours of the 2 positions would require overtime pay or otherwise violate the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 or any other state or federal law. The bill would not apply to (1) an employee who is in the process of completing a written performance improvement plan, who was previously involuntarily demoted from the same position as the vacancy, who has been suspended, or who is the subject of a pending disciplinary action for suspension or dismissal, or (2) confidential or management employees or vacancies for their positions, as provided.

Existing law requires a person laid off by a county office of education, school district, or community college district because of lack of work or funds to be eligible for reemployment for period of 39 months, as specified.

This bill would provide that its provisions do not supersede that requirement, and would also not apply to an education employer with a contravening collective bargaining agreement in effect on January 1, 2024, until the expiration or renewal of that agreement.