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AB 2561 – Local Public Employee: Vacant Positions

CATEGORY: Client Update for Public Agencies, Fire Watch, Law Enforcement Briefing Room
CLIENT TYPE: Public Employers, Public Safety
DATE: Oct 23, 2024

The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA) authorizes local public employees to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on matters of labor relations. The MMBA also requires the governing body or management of a public agency to meet and confer in good faith regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment with representatives of recognized employee organizations and to fully consider presentations that are made by the employee organization on behalf of its members before arriving at a determination of policy or course of action.

Assembly Bill 2561 (AB 2561) requires a public agency to present the status of job position vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts at a public hearing before the agency’s governing board at least once per fiscal year. If the agency’s governing board intends to adopt an annual or multiyear budget during the fiscal year, the required presentation must be made before the budget’s adoption. Furthermore, the public agency is required to identify any necessary changes to policies, procedures, and recruitment activities that may lead to obstacles in the hiring process, during the hearing.

AB 2561 requires that the recognized employee organization for a bargaining unit be allowed to make a presentation at the vacancy hearing for positions within that bargaining unit. If the number of job vacancies within a single bargaining unit meets or exceeds twenty percent (20%) of the total number of authorized full-time positions, the public agency is required to, upon request of the recognized employee organization, include all of the following information during the public hearing:

  • The total number of job vacancies within the bargaining unit;
  • The total number of applicants for vacant positions within the bargaining unit;
  • The average number of days to complete the hiring process from when a position is posted; and
  • Opportunities to improve compensation and other working conditions.

AB 2561 further provides that the new law may not prevent an agency’s government board from holding additional public hearings about vacancies.

(AB 2561 adds section 3502.3 to the Government Code.)

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