LCW Conference 2023 Brochure

Public Sector Employment Law Annual Conference

Pre-Conference Session

Costing

The keys to successful negotiations include planning and costing. Just like planning a vacation, the amount of time and effort you put into planning and costing can determine the success of the trip. Costing contract proposals is similar to costing excursions on a vacation – they all sound like a good idea but can we afford them? Join us at this workshop to learn the importance of costing and the methods you can use to make costing easy. Participants will not only be provided with the tools to cost proposals, but will engage in interactive exercises where they set up an MOU Master Spreadsheet and proposals to cost. Bring your laptop and your Excel skills.

This workshop is our LCW Conference Pre-Conference session and is also part of our Labor Relations Certificate program.

We’ve added Bonus Content, since it is also our pre-conference session: Compensation Surveys & Collective Bargaining!

As a bonus to this year’s pre-conference workshop, additional information on the development, impact, and usefulness of compensation surveys in collective bargaining will be highlighted and shared with attendees!

Please note that this is a separate registration from the LCW Conference registration. Register here.

Pre-Conference Session

Two

Human Resources Bootcamp

Wednesday, March 15

9:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Whether you are new to public sector labor and employment relations, or an experienced practitioner, this pre-conference session ensures that you are up to date on the most significant legal updates and fundamental issues facing public sector Human Resource professionals, including:

• Legal Tune up – an overview of the year’s most significant legal developments;

• Leaves – Federal and state law provide leaves for a myriad of different purposes. Some last for days, some for weeks, and others for months. They each have different eligibility and documentation requirements and many of them can overlap. We will give you tips on addressing and administering leaves.

• Disability – The disability interactive process requires very specific steps to ensure that your agency has satisfied its legal obligation to show that reasonable accommodations have been fully vetted by your agency. We will explain the process, walk you through the steps, and enable you to provide a meaningful interactive process that can withstand the scrutiny of a challenge. Disability discrimination claims often challenge the interactive process provided, or not provided. This session will not only help you to avoid such a challenge but empower you to know that you have done what the law requires for your disabled applicants and employees.

• Discipline – Following the steps that must be taken to ensure due process in disciplining employees is critical. We will focus on the pre-discipline process, including how to conduct an effective Skelly meeting, and how to ensure necessary appeal rights are provided once the discipline is implemented.

• Performance Management and Discipline – we will discuss managing employee performance including goal setting, ongoing feedback, formal evaluations, and corrective actions.

• We hope you will join us for this informative, interactive day designed to help you learn and hone your knowledge and skills so that you can operate at peak efficiency in tackling the HR challenges ahead.

Please note that this is a separate registration from the LCW Conference registration. Register here.

Thursday

March 16

Conference Schedule DAY

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Legal Hot Spots Now and In the Future

8:45am – 10:00am

We welcome you to beautiful San Diego with an opening session designed to get you up to speed and on your way! We kick off our annual conference with a quick rundown of the biggest legal issues facing public agencies today and identify matters we’re monitoring for future impact.

Concurrent Session #1 10:20am – 11:50am

Public Safety Legal Update

The Public Safety Legal Update is a conference staple. During this session, the most significant new court decisions, administrative decisions and statutes impacting personnel management of employees in law enforcement and fire departments will be discussed. Please join the presenter in an analysis of how these new laws impact your public safety agency, and learn practical tips for navigating new challenges that these laws create for managers, supervisors and human resources professionals.

Managing a Hybrid Workplace: Understanding the Challenges, Employer Responsibilities, and Applicable Policies

For many public agencies, hybrid workforces have become the usual course of business. Clear and focused policies will ensure that employers and employees succeed in the hybrid workplace. This session addresses some of the areas of policy and potential liability in a hybrid work model including: performance standards, wage and hour considerations, accommodations and drug/alcohol policies, among others.

Strike!!! Practical Guidance for How Public Employers Should Prepare for And Respond to Work Stoppages

Is your agency prepared to provide services to the public in the event of a strike by your employees? This session will provide practical guidance that will assist employers prepare for strikes so that they can continue to provide services essential to public health and safety during any work stoppage. We will share our recent experiences working to prepare clients for threatened strikes. In order to prepare you and your agency for a potential work stoppage we will provide you with the tools needed to identify services that your agency provides which are essential to public health and safety and the employees who are necessary to the performance of such services. We will also discuss important legal obligations related to strike activities and other essential components of a strike contingency plan, so that you can respond confidently in the event that agency employees threaten to strike.

Conference Schedule

DAY Thursday March 16 ne

Workplace Investigations: The Do’s and Don’ts From Our Time in the Trenches

Your agency just received its second anonymous complaint of harassment and retaliation. Or a manager just told you they suspect an employee is putting in for overtime they didn’t work. What do you do, especially when you fear litigation could follow? In this session, seasoned workplace investigators and litigators will walk you through the essential parts of the investigation process, from deciding whether to investigate, to determining what to do after you have reviewed the investigation report. This presentation will not only explore best practices for workplace investigations, but also explore what not to do, and why.

Lunch 12:00pm – 1:00pm

Concurrent Session #2 1:15pm – 2:45pm

Recruitment and Hiring Challenges for Public Safety Departments

Public Safety Departments are facing a tough hiring environment, particularly law enforcement departments, since recent events and societal trends have shrunk the pool of interested applicants while simultaneously increasing public demand for more diverse workforces. This presentation will discuss some of the causes of the labor shortage, the legal landscape and practical solutions for public safety departments to address their short-term needs (e.g., personnel shortages – when can and can’t an employer use annuitants) and long-term goals (e.g., how to legally recruit the best personnel while addressing diversity challenges).

The Crazy World of Flexible Spending Accounts

Enter the unique and crazy world of Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs). Health FSAs and Dependent Care Assistance Programs (DCAPs) are two of the most popular cafeteria plan benefits public agencies offer. But these FSA benefits can also be some of the most complicated to administer. This presentation will cover the features of FSAs that raise the most questions and that every agency should know: grace period vs. carry over, contribution caps, qualified benefit requirements, reimbursement and substantiation requirements, when FSA contributions can stop and restart, special limited COBRA, and notice requirements. Whether you are new to the world of FSAs or a seasoned administrator, this presentation will have something for everyone. You will come away with detailed knowledge about how FSAs operate, which will help you administer employee situations and help you negotiate health benefits at the table.

Conference Schedule DAY

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Ensuring Your Wage and Hour MOU Provisions Are Lawful

Collective bargaining agreements include many provisions that are subject to the FLSA and other applicable wage and hour laws. In this session, we will review those provisions and discuss how to ensure they are lawful and how to fix them through collective bargaining if they are not. Also, most agencies exceed the requirements of the law and some unknowingly overpay in the way they apply the provisions in their agreements. Understanding the difference between what you must do under the law and what you can choose to do based on collective bargaining is fundamental when negotiating with labor groups. We will show you exactly how to ensure that you correctly address all of the MOU provisions that address the law, how to write the language and negotiate for modifications to existing language to ensure legal compliance in the MOU and the most common mistakes agencies make in applying these provisions.

Navigating “Whistleblower” Complaints

Almost every employment-related statute in California now has an anti-retaliation provision that allows employees who report wrongdoing (whistleblowing) or engage in other legally protected activity, to sue for damages and, in some cases, reinstatement and attorneys’ fees. This presentation will review the antiretaliation laws an employer needs to know and the conduct these laws protect. This presentation also will highlight the challenges employers face when defending against whistleblower claims in litigation, and best practices for managing whistleblower complaints and minimizing liability exposure, including how best to document an agency’s legitimate business reasons for employment actions that follow an employee’s protected activity or whistleblower complaint. The presentation will include a discussion about burdens of proof, including the “clear and convincing” evidentiary standard employers must be aware of when making employment decisions.

Facebook or Disgracebook? – Public Safety and the Parameters of Free Speech Rights

The session will cover the scope of public safety employees’ free speech rights and will discuss whether and when an employer can regulate speech, including social media, political activism, and union activity. Instagram, Tik Tok, and Facebook posts – we will answer questions about what is considered private, does it matter whether the conduct is off duty, is there a nexus to the department, and is it protected speech? We will cite recent case law and current examples, analyzing the balance of free speech rights and public safety discipline.

Conference Schedule DAY Thursday March 16 ne

Prepare and Prevent, Instead of Repair and Repent: FLSA Legal Update and Litigation Trends

The best way to protect your agency from costly FLSA violations is to prevent loss from occurring. Identifying and addressing potential areas of FLSA non-compliance is key to avoiding liability. This program will discuss recent must-know developments in the law and litigation trends that affect California public agencies. Topics covered include off-the-clock work, the regular rate of pay, hybrid and remote work, overtime exemptions, independent contractors and more. Strategies to prevent compliance issues from becoming FLSA lawsuits will also be discussed.

Hiring CalPERS Retirees-What Every Public Employer Must Know CalPERS contracting agencies are using retirees more and more to provide needed services. The restrictions on hiring retirees have become stricter and enforcement of those rules has increased. The result is that public agencies and the retirees they hire are increasingly getting hit with penalties for violating the rules. Hiring retirees the right way is not easy, but it is possible. This session will discuss how to do it. Topics to be covered include:

1. What retirees can be hired to do

2. Limits on hours, salary, benefits and duration of appointment

3. Penalties for violating the rules

4. “Extra Help” assignments and the limits on filling a vacant position

5. The difference between independent contractors and employees

What’s

a Public Record? Requirements and Strategies For Responding to Public Record Act Requests

With growing calls for government transparency in today’s political landscape, public agencies are facing increasing demands under the Public Records Act (PRA). This often leads to difficult questions. How do you handle responding to a PRA request that involves thousands of documents or emails? How do you process a PRA request that involves confidential information? How do you respond when you know the PRA request is informal discovery for a future or pending lawsuit or grievance? How much do you have to disclose about employee compensation or retiree pension amounts? Come discuss these and other recent PRA-related challenges facing your agency. This session is everything you always wanted to know about the PRA but were afraid to ask.

Reception

5:00pm – 6:00pm

Conference Schedule DAY Friday March 17 Tw

Morning Walk

7:00am – 8:00am

Concurrent Session #4

9:00am – 10:30am

FLSA Compliance for Public Safety Departments: a Scenario Based Approach

Using case studies and scenarios, this workshop will highlight some of the most common Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) compliance issues found in public safety departments, including off the clock work, correctly paying overtime, managing public safety schedules, and properly paying public safety managers. This workshop will also provide participants with tools to prevent and/or fix FLSA problems via labor negotiations, training and improved supervision, and payroll improvements. If your agency employs law enforcement or fire personnel, this workshop is a must.

Hiring the Best — While (Lawfully) Building the Diversity of Your Work Force

This highlight of the 2022 conference returns for an encore! California’s public agencies are caught between a rock and a hard place: On the one hand, there has been a surge in interest among public agencies to find ways to serve their communities with a more diverse workforce—often coupled with increased community pressure to do so. On the other hand, the California constitution prohibits public agencies from factoring race, ethnicity or sex into hiring or promotional decisions. LCW has assisted numerous agencies across the state navigate this quagmire. In this workshop, members of our workforce diversity team, will provide the following essential building blocks for designing lawful workforce diversity plans: an overview of the legal parameters for diversity hiring; key legal principles that help you design diversity strategies that are lawful and merit based; and a framework for developing specific strategies tailored to the needs of your particular agency.

Common Mistakes to Avoid to Ensure a Smooth Negotiation Process

Preparing for negotiations is crucial to the bargaining success of public agencies. This session will provide an overview of the mistakes we see, including misunderstanding the FLSA, missed must-have items in your MOUs, retirement costs, and more. We will also discuss successfully navigating negotiation’s final stages, including LBFOs and impasse. This is a not to be missed session if you are involved in negotiations!

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Conference Schedule DAY

Successful Management of Disability Discrimination Claims

Public sector disability discrimination claims are on the rise and present challenging reasonable accommodation issues for employers. This presentation will take a closer look into the process that employers are legally required to follow to evaluate common accommodations that are sought by employees such as extended leave, light duty, and telecommuting and flexible work schedules. We will discuss how to address accommodation requests and make legally defensible decisions. We will also discuss lessons learned in recent disability discrimination jury trials that will provide a blueprint for working with legal counsel to ensure litigation ends with a favorable result at the lowest possible cost.

Concurrent Session #5 11:00am – 12:30pm

Making It Stick – Best Practices for a Successful Discipline Appeal Hearing

An agency invests significant time, effort and resources in its decision to discipline an employee; a decision which must withstand an appeal. This important training will provide a comprehensive review of the most important considerations that can arise during the discipline process. From the investigation, to the notice of discipline, pre-hearing discovery, exchange of witness lists, subpoenas, pre-hearing motions, witness preparation, and practical aspects of the hearing process itself, our presenters will discuss the latest cases and statutes and provide practical tips to help ensure that the level of discipline you impose sticks.

The Impacts of Our Current Economic Climate and COVID Have Had on the Collective Bargaining Table

The Post-COVID-19 economic landscape could result in difficult decisions for public agencies regarding funding, budget priorities, and employee compensation. Combined with aggressive labor agendas coming through the pandemic, public sector collective bargaining presents uniquely complex challenges. This session will review strategies for layoffs, furloughs, freezing step increases and other concessions and the meet and confer obligations surrounding these issues. A review of the process of impacts/effects bargaining will be highlighted using case studies. We will highlight the pros/cons of items such as short vs. long-term labor agreements, the impact of furloughs on exempt employees and offer suggestions for communicating with your governing body on the rules of engagement during financially challenging times.

Conference Schedule DAY

Keeping Up With CalPERS: Common Compliance Findings and New and Emerging Interpretations

Employers and employees are seeing challenges from CalPERS to long-standing practices regarding what compensation is reportable and employees who may be enrolled in membership. This session will cover a number of CalPERS reporting and compliance issues that agencies have encountered over the last few years, with a focus on recent developments and emerging interpretations your agency should know, including:

• Language in MOUs that make specialty pays no longer reportable

• Common reporting errors and mistakes

• Recent and emerging compliance findings and interpretations regarding reportable compensation and employer responsibilities

• Reporting special compensation for unrepresented employees

• Knowing what may constitute final settlement pay

• Addressing contract exclusion amendments in the CalPERS contract

We will explain how to correct these issues to avoid future liability. This session is particularly important in light of the recent enactment of SB 278. When certain specified conditions are met, the provisions of SB 278 subject public employers who contract with CalPERS to liability for all overpayments made to retirees based on excluded compensation and a 20 percent penalty of the present value of the excluded benefit.

Navigating a New Era for Mental Health in the Workplace

As a result of the pandemic, among other social issues, the last few years have culminated into changes to what we understand the workplace to look like. One silver lining amid all the disruption is the normalization of talking about mental health challenges. We’re seeing greater numbers of employees talking about, prioritizing, and discussing their mental health, and we’re seeing supervisors expressing a desire to better understand how to support employees. This session will discuss the prominent mental health issues of the day, and will provide you with a roadmap for navigating how to talk about, accommodate, support, and supervise employees and their mental health in the workplace.

RATES

Early Bird: Regular: Group Rate (3+ before Early Bird):

$620 per attendee (before 2/9/2023) $650 per attendee (after 2/9/2023) $575 per attendee (before 2/9/2023)

Please note that the Group Rate is not available after 2/9/2023. You must register all attendees at the same time to receive the Group Rate.

Cancellation Policy: Cancellation requests must be received by March 1, 2023 to receive a full refund, less a $25 administrative fee. No refunds will be given after that time. Participant substitutions are accepted any time prior to March 13, 2023.

Please submit any cancellation notice or substitution request to abaldenegro@lcwlegal.com.

HOTEL

Please contact: Andy Baldenegro: 310.981.2320 | abaldenegro@lcwlegal.com

www.lcwlegal.com