For purposes of this chapter:

(a) “Board” means the Public Employment Relations Board. The powers and duties of the board described in Section 3541.3 shall also apply, as appropriate, to this chapter.

(b) “Confidential employee” means any employee who is required to develop or present management positions with respect to employer-employee relations or whose duties normally require access to confidential information contributing significantly to the development of management positions.

(c) “Employee organization” means any organization that includes employees of the Judicial Council and that has as one of its primary purposes representing these employees in their relations with the Judicial Council.

(d) “Excluded employees” means any employee occupying a position specifically designated by the Judicial Council pursuant to Section 3524.53.

(e) “Fair share fee” means the fee deducted by the Judicial Council from the salary or wages of a Judicial Council employee in an appropriate unit who does not become a member of, and financially support, the recognized employee organization. The fair share fee shall be used to defray the costs incurred by the recognized employee organization in fulfilling its duty to represent the employees in their employment relations with the Judicial Council, and shall not exceed the standard initiation fee, membership dues, and general assessments of the recognized employee organization.

(f) “Judicial Council,” or “employer,” for the purposes of bargaining or meeting and conferring in good faith, means the Administrative Director of the Courts, or his or her designated representative, acting with the authorization of the Chairperson of the Judicial Council.

(g) “Judicial Council employee” or “employee” means any employee of the Judicial Council, except managerial, supervisory, and confidential employees, and excluded employees, as designated by the Judicial Council pursuant to Section 3524.53, and a judicial officer or employee of the Supreme Court, the courts of appeal, or the Habeas Corpus Resource Center.

(h) “Maintenance of membership” means that all employees who voluntarily are, or who voluntarily become, members of a recognized employee organization shall remain members of that employee organization in good standing for a period as agreed to by the parties pursuant to a memorandum of understanding, commencing with the effective date of the memorandum of understanding. A maintenance of membership provision shall not apply to any employee who within 30 days prior to the expiration of the memorandum of understanding withdraws from the employee organization by sending a signed withdrawal letter to the employee organization and a copy to the Controller’s office.

(i) “Managerial employee” means any employee having significant responsibilities for formulating or administering agency or departmental policies and programs or administering an agency or department.

(j) “Mediation” means effort by an impartial third party to assist in reconciling a dispute regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment between representatives of the public agency and the recognized employee organization or recognized employee organizations through interpretation, suggestion, and advice.

(k) “Professional employee” means either of the following:

(1) Any employee engaged in any of the following types of work:

(A) Predominantly intellectual and varied in character as opposed to routine mental, manual, mechanical, or physical work.

(B) Work involving the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment in its performance.

(C) Work of such a character that the output produced or the result accomplished cannot be standardized in relation to a given period of time.

(D) Work requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction, as distinguished from a general academic education or from an apprenticeship or from training in the performance of routine mental, manual, or physical processes.

(2) Any employee for which both of the following apply:

(A) Completed the courses of specialized intellectual instruction and study described in subparagraph (D) of paragraph (1).

(B) Is performing related work under the supervision of a professional person to qualify himself or herself to become a professional employee as defined in paragraph (1).

(l) “Recognized employee organization” means an employee organization that has been recognized by the Judicial Council as the exclusive representative of the employees in an appropriate unit.

(m) “Supervisory employee” means any individual, regardless of the job description or title, having authority, in the interest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees, or responsibility to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend this action, if, in connection with the foregoing, the exercise of this authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment. Employees whose duties are substantially similar to those of their subordinates shall not be considered to be supervisory employees.

(Added by Stats. 2017, Ch. 835, Sec. 1. (AB 83) Effective January 1, 2018.)