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The
Board’s Mission ...
The Employee Relations Board administers the city’s
Employee Relations Ordinance (the “ERO”). Its
functions in so doing include determining representation units
for City employees, arranging for an election in such units,
determining the validity of claims of unfair practices filed
against management and employee organizations, and acting
on requests for mediation, fact finding and arbitration in
the resolution of bargaining impasses and grievances, including
maintaining a list of impartial third parties for those purposes.
The
Board and Individual Employees...
Although the Board is authorized to process a variety of different
types of cases, the great majority of filings by individual
employees are what is called unfair employee relations practice
(or "UERP") claims. In general, UERP claims filed
by individual employees are allegations that they have been
retaliated against by their department and/or their union
for exercising their rights under the ERO or that management
or union representatives have otherwise interfered with their
ERO rights. The Board's authority over UERP claims is quasi-judicial
in the sense that like a court of law, the Board does not
act through its own initiative nor does it conduct investigations.
Rather, as is true of a trial court, the Board acts only in
response to petitions properly submitted to it.
The UERP process is initiated by the “claimant’s”
filing of a claim with the Board on its official form. A blank
copy of the claim form can be obtained by clicking on "Forms"
on the banner across the top of this page, by calling the
Board at (213) 473-9700 to request a copy or by visiting
the Board’s office on the eleventh floor of City Hall East.
In order to be properly filed, an original and eight copies
of a completed, typed UERP form must be filed with the Board
either in person or by U.S. Mail (e-mail does not suffice
for this purpose) and by serving a copy on the party against
whom the claim is filed (the "respondent"). The
claimant must provide the Board with a completed proof of
service form, a blank copy of which is also available from
this website or by calling the Board or visiting its office.
Documents which are not submitted to the Board on its official
form and which are not served on the respondent are not considered
to have been properly filed.
A properly filed UERP claim that the five members of the Board
itself believe alleges information which, if true, might constitute
a violation of the ERO is normally referred to a “hearing
officer” to conduct a hearing on the matter. Claims
which do not contain sufficient information to lead the Board
to believe the ERO may have been violated are dismissed without
being referred to a hearing officer.
Although less formal, a Board hearing is similar to a court
trial before a judge in that evidence is taken by the hearing
officer through the testimony of witnesses and the presentation
of documents. The Board does not provide representation to
unfair practice claimants. Employees not wishing to handle
their own case are entitled to be represented by a union staff
person, a union attorney or an attorney they themselves retain.
After completion of the hearing, the hearing officer makes
a recommendation to the Board itself regarding whether a violation
of the ERO has occurred. The members of the Board will then
either fully affirm that recommendation, affirm it in part
and modify or reject it in part, or reject it entirely. If
no violation of the ERO is found, the UERP claim will be dismissed.
If a violation is found, the Board will issue an order compelling
the respondent to take action to remedy that violation.
Learn
More About ERB >>
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