Pocket Guide to Workplace Rights of Public Employees

By Bonnie G. Bogue, Carol Vendrillo and Liz Joffe
2nd Edition, 2005

$12 each

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In concise and understandable language, this compact edition explains the many rights afforded public employees in California — state, local government, and school employees — and in the federal workforce. It provides an overview of the rights that have been granted to individual employees by the United States and California Constitutions and by a variety of statutes, including the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, and anti-discrimination laws, such as Title VII of the federal civil rights act and the state Fair Employment and Housing Act.

Part I covers personal rights that public employees enjoy, such as free speech, equal protection, due process, privacy, and protections against wrongful termination. Part II explains the rights of individual employees who work where there is a union, such as the right to participate (or not to particpate) in a union and the union’s duty to fairly represent all employees, regardless of union membership or political activity.

Coauthor Bonnie Bogue is a labor lawyer and arbitrator, who has served as a researcher and editor with the CPER Program since 1970. Carol Vendrillo is current director of CPER. Labor lawyer Liz Joffe participated in the preparation of this booklet as a research project sponsored by CPER and Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley.

 

Contents

Preface	1
Part I: Individual Rights	3
Introduction	3
1. Wrongful Termination or Discipline	5
2. Due Process	19
3. Employment Discrimination and Harassment	28
4. Privacy and Drug Testing	42
5. Personnel Files	49
6. Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act	58
7. First Amendment	65
8. Whistleblower Protection	76
9. Disability Rights	82
10. Family and Medical Care Leave	90
11. Layoffs and Reductions in Force	97
Part II: Employee Representation Rights	105
Introduction	105
12. Protected Activities	112
13. Right to Union Representation	123
14. Self-Representation	127
15. Duty of Fair Representation	132
16. Organizational Security	141
Table of Cases	151
Index of Terms	163