News Release
Friday, February 20, 1998
On Tuesday, the Society of Professional Scientists and Engineers
(SPSE) took legal action to halt proposed changes in Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) personnel policies. SPSE
petitioned the California State Public Employment Relations Board
(PERB) to seek a court order prohibiting any policy changes until
an unfair labor practice charge filed by SPSE is resolved by PERB.
During the next several days PERB will investigate the basis and
urgency of SPSE's petition and decide on whether to seek an immediate
injunction.
SPSE filed an unfair labor practice charge with PERB in October
1996 against the University of California (UC) which manages the
Livermore Lab. The charge claimed that UC made substantial changes
in the personnel policies affecting LLNL personnel without prior
notification to employees. California law requires that UC and
the Laboratory give prior notice to Lab employees before changing
personnel policies. They are supposed to promote thorough discussion
and seek employee input before any changes are made.
In July 1996, the University made sweeping changes in the UC system-wide
personnel policies. A new "Personnel Policies for UC Staff
Members" was installed and the prior "Staff Personnel
Policy Manual" was eliminated. During the development of
the new policies, campuses across the state were brought into
the discussion. The UC President's Office instructed LLNL's Director
at least twice to inform Lab employees that these changes were
planned and told him to encourage thorough discussion. The Director
ignored the President's instructions. The
Lab employees were never notified of the impending changes.
The new UC system-wide policy did represent a major change for
the LLNL personnel. The new UC policy eliminated the linkage between
the UC and LLNL personnel policies, and changed the basis on which
future changes to the LLNL personnel policy are made. In the past,
LLNL personnel policies were the same as UC's except that some
modifications to fit LLNL's special needs were permitted, if approved
by the UC President. The new UC policy removes the language about
"modifications" of UC staff personnel policies and states
that employees at the Department of Energy Laboratories "are
covered by approved variations of these and prior policies. ...
Employees at the laboratories should consult local policy documents
for information about policies that apply to them."
By these changes, the many improvements in employee rights contained
in the new UC policies do not flow through to LLNL employees.
For example, UC policies now give employees the right to final
and binding arbitration in disputes involving discrimination,
hours of work, vacation, sick leave, holidays, leaves of absence,
shift and weekend differential pay, and reprisal, as well as those
involving layoff, disciplinary action, and termination. Under
LLNL policy, arbitration decisions, except for the last three
items, are only advisory to the Director.
LLNL now proposes to create a new class of "Restricted Status"
Employees who can be terminated at will. In parallel, the concept
of Term Employees will be phased out. This is an example of the
erosion of LLNL employee rights that may slip by UC because the
Lab is no longer required to conform to UC's personnel policies.
The UC personnel policies, both prior and current, treat staff
employed for longer than thirteen months as being in a career
position. The UC policy does include provisions for layoff of
career employees if necessary due to lack of funds or lack of
work, and thus provides management with adequate flexibility.
SPSE found out about the UC policy changes affecting LLNL employees
months after the policy changes were already adopted. We promptly
filed an unfair labor practice charge. PERB will conduct a hearing
on this charge later this month but they estimate it will take
more than a year to get a final decision through the lengthy appeals
process. In the meantime, the Laboratory is making changes in
LLNL policies that diverge radically from UC's policies and adversely
affect employee rights.
SPSE is seeking the injunction to block policy changes that will
later have to be reversed if SPSE prevails in the unfair practice
charges. There is a danger that personnel actions based upon proposed
policy changes will damage employees in ways that are not reversible.
For example, hiring and firing Restricted Status Employees, or
denying final and binding arbitration to settle a dispute may
have irreversible consequences.
Whether or not the court issues an injunction against the Laboratory,
the action on the unfair practice charge will go forward. PERB's
hearing on the unfair practice will begin at the Kaiser Center
in Oakland on February 26.
If PERB sustains the unfair labor practice charge, then we will
be back to the starting gate. The change separating LLNL from
UC personnel policy will be void, but LLNL management could propose
it again with a round of notification, comment, and submittal
to the UC President's Office for approval. During this process
the LLNL staff members would have the opportunity to debate the
issue on its merits, and to inform interested stakeholders of
its broad implications.
SPSE is a union of the scientists and engineers at LLNL. It formed
in 1973 and has continuously fought to preserve employee rights
at the Laboratory since then. SPSE's offices are located at 4047
First Street in Livermore, CA. The office phone is (510) 449-4846.
The SPSE web page is at: www.spse.org and e-mail can be directed
to spse@spse.org
Contacts re injunction:
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