California teachers could spend more than 12 years on union organizing with new bill

California teachers could take an indefinite leave from the classroom to work on union business without suffering consequences to their pensions under a bill introduced by a state lawmaker.

Senate Bill 294, authored by Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, would remove a cap that compels teachers to return to schools after 12 years of union-related leave.

Teachers, like other public employees, accrue service credit toward their pensions for each year they work. When they retire, their years of service are a key factor in how big their pension will be. Under current law, teachers may work full-time for their unions while continuing to accrue service credit, but not for more than 12 years. Leyva’s proposal would remove the cap.

Other public employees in union leadership positions, such as correctional officers and local government workers, already may take indefinite leave from their jobs in California. Their unions reimburse government employers for their salaries and benefits while they’re working for bargaining groups.

“SB 294 simply removes that 12-year cap to insure that educators have the same opportunities as other employees,” Leyva said at a Senate committee hearing on the bill this week.

Her bill cleared Senate Committee on Labor, Public Employment and Retirement on a 4-1 vote on March 9, sending it to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The bill is co-sponsored by the California Labor Federation, California Federation of Teachers, and the California Teachers Association. No groups have stepped forward to oppose the bill.

The lone senator to vote against SB 294, Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, R-Yucaipa, said that the cap provides incentive for teachers to rotate into and out of union positions, and for a change in leadership and newer voices to be heard.

“So right now, with the 12-year cap, it incentivizes teachers to kind of rotate. I see it sort of as term limits for legislators,” Ochoa Bogh said at the hearing.

Leyva replied that experience is valuable when it comes to the complexities of union contracts.

“As someone who worked in the labor movement for 30 years and represented workers for 20 of those years, the more time you have in, the better. Those contracts can be very complex and very hard to understand. So I see having more than 12 years as a benefit. Rotating leadership? Yeah, it can be good sometimes. But you’re bringing someone in brand new who has no idea, maybe, what the contract is. This is a way to create some continuity,” she said.

This story was originally published March 12, 2021 at 5:00 AM.