Sacramento teachers union alleges district engaged in bad-faith bargaining

Sacramento City Unified teachers who went on strike for eight days this spring could get back pay if California’s state labor agency agrees the district engaged in bad-faith bargaining practices, the Sacramento Bee reported.

The Sacramento City Teachers Association filed a charge against the district with the California Public Employment Relations Board in May, and PERB took up the complaint on July 6.

The complaint alleges the district informed teachers that schools would be closed during the strike, but also that they would be required to report to their regular assignments. Employees who went into work from March 23 to April 3, the duration of the strike, were paid, according to the complaint.

After a one-day teacher walkout in 2019, “PERB ultimately found that the district engaged in bad-faith bargaining by giving incentives to substitute teachers to step in during the strike, and ordered the district to pay all teachers who took part in the strike at the rate the substitute teachers were paid,” according to the Bee. This precedent could lead to a teacher payout if PERB finds the district in the wrong.

The complaint also alleges the district engaged in “surface bargaining,” a strategy where one party goes through the motions of bargaining, but has no intention of coming to an agreement.

The district and union could not come to an agreement on how to add back in days that were missed during the strike, and the district is now facing a penalty of up to $47 million for falling short of the minimum number of teaching days in the state, the Bee reported.