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The following rules and regulations are intended to provide the structure for implementation of employee rights at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in accordance with University of California Guidelines for Relations with Employee Organizations. These rules and regulations, and amendments of or modifications to them, are not subject to Berkeley Lab grievance or appeal policies.
Subject to these rules and regulations, Laboratory employees have the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation. Laboratory employees also have the right to refuse to join or participate in the activities of employee organizations and have the right to represent themselves individually in their employment relations with the Laboratory.
The Laboratory Director is responsible for ensuring that each managerial and confidential employee is identified as such in the Laboratory personnel system and the corporate personnel system.
The University is required, on written authorization by the employee involved, to deduct and remit to the employee organization of the employee's choice the standard initiation fee, periodic dues, and general assessments of such organization, until an exclusive representative has been selected for the employee's unit or until notified by the employee in writing that the employee wishes to terminate the deduction.
Once an exclusive representative has been selected, deductions may be made only for the exclusive representative. Cancellation of deductions to other employee organizations will become effective with earnings for the pay period following the certification of the election results.
In addition to payroll deductions for employee organizations, as mandated by HEERA, deductions are permitted for employee-organization-sponsored insured benefit premiums. Approval for the insured benefit is made by the Office of the Director, Collective Bargaining Services, University Systemwide Administration.
Payroll deductions payable to an employee organization are not permitted for management or confidential employees except that temporary confidential employees may continue membership in employee organizations for the explicit purpose of maintaining existing payroll deductions for insured benefit premiums.
Employee organizations, including nonemployee representatives of such organizations, will be permitted the use of Laboratory rooms and spaces for meetings held outside the scheduled work time of the Laboratory employees attending, subject to availability of space and confirmation of availability by the Employee Relations Administrator.
Representatives of registered employee organizations may apply for reservations for Laboratory meeting rooms at the Human Resources Department, using forms provided for that purpose. If the use of a room normally provided with facilities for a microphone and/or projection equipment is requested and approved, the Laboratory will provide this equipment as long as it is requested at the time of application. Applications should be made at least 48 hours before an event whenever possible and may be made only in a period three months before the date of request. Reservations, subject to availability of space, will be made in the order of receipt of applications.
Users should exercise reasonable care in the use to which the facilities are put during the time reserved and make prompt payment of all charges. The organization that has reserved the facility assumes responsibility for any violations of University of California or Laboratory regulations that occur in connection with its use. No organization other than the reserving organization may use the facility reserved.
Reasonable charges may be made for use of facilities based on identifiable cost to the Laboratory.
Employee organization use of bulletin boards is limited to communicating information to employees and is subject to the availability of space and the Laboratory's posting regulations.
Employee organization representatives are permitted to distribute material and solicit membership outside the entrances to buildings and parking lots as long as adequate care is taken to prevent littering and avoid interfering with traffic flow. Freestanding racks with employee organization information also are permitted at entrances to the Laboratory; at the entrances to Buildings 50, 70, 76, 77, and 90; and, with approval of the Employee Relations Administrator, in the foyer of Building 54 (cafeteria).
Employee organizations will not be permitted the use of Laboratory mail service, telephones, copying machines, or other Laboratory equipment or supplies, except as provided in RPM §2.19(F)(1).
Employee organizations will be permitted to conduct business with employees at work only when the physical location is appropriate for such business, i.e., as long as there is no interruption of work and the area is not otherwise restricted for reasons of confidentiality, security, or safety, and when the employees are not on work time.
Supervisory employees have the right to form, join, and participate in employee organizations for the purpose of representation on supervisory employer-employee relations and the right to refuse to join or participate in employee organizations. Supervisory employees may not, however, participate in the handling of grievances or meet and confer processes on behalf of nonsupervisory employees or vote on questions of ratification or rejection of memoranda of understanding reached on behalf of nonsupervisory employees.
HEERA provides that certified exclusive representatives of employees of the University in an appropriate unit "shall engage in meeting and conferring with the employee organization selected as exclusive representative of an appropriate unit on all matters within the scope of representation" (Art. 4, §3570).
Arrangements for such meetings should be made through the Head of the Human Resources Department, if the unit is composed of Laboratory employees only, or through the University Director, Labor Relations, in the case of a multilocation or systemwide unit.
In the absence of a memorandum of understanding or if the memorandum of understanding does not cover the subject, a reasonable number of representatives of an exclusive representative have the right to receive reasonable periods of released or reassigned time without loss of compensation when engaged in meeting and conferring and for the processing of grievances. When a memorandum of understanding is in effect, released or reassigned time must be in accordance with the memorandum.
To the extent required by law, copies of public records are provided to employee organizations at cost and in whatever form they exist. Requests for multilocation information should be submitted to the Director, Labor Relations, at the University of California Office of the President. Requests for Laboratory information only should be submitted to the Head of the Human Resources Department at Berkeley Lab.
Printed
. The official or current version is located in the online LBNL Regulations and Procedures Manual.
Printed or electronically transmitted copies are not official. Users are responsible for working with the latest approved revision.