The California Dills Act is the 1977 state law that gives most California state employees the right to form and join unions and to bargain collectively with the state over wages, hours, and working conditions. Officially the Ralph C. Dills Act, it’s codified at Government Code sections 3512 through 3524 and enforced by the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB).1California Legislative Information. California Government Code 3512-3524 – State Employer-Employee Relations More than 80 percent of the state workforce is covered, spread across 21 bargaining units organized by occupation.2Legislative Analyst’s Office. State Workforce – Bargaining Unit Profiles
Who the Act Covers
The Act draws sharp lines between categories of state workers. Rank-and-file employees get the fullest protections: the right to organize, full collective bargaining, and the ability to reach binding agreements with the state. Supervisory employees can also organize and join supervisory employee organizations, but their bargaining is narrower — a “meet and confer” process rather than the full scope available to rank-and-file workers.3CAPT. California’s Ralph C. Dills Act Defines State Collective-Bargaining Rights
Managerial employees, confidential employees, and certain other categories are excluded from the Act’s bargaining framework entirely. They fall instead under a separate Bill of Rights for State Excluded Employees at Government Code sections 3525–3533, which offers some workplace protections but no right to negotiate binding contracts. Excluded employees cannot hold office in a union that also represents non-excluded workers, cannot vote on ratification of an MOU, and cannot participate in grievance handling for rank-and-file employees.4California Legislative Information. California Government Code 3515
The 21 bargaining units cover a wide range of occupations, from administrative and financial staff in Unit 1 to highway patrol officers in Unit 5, registered nurses in Unit 17, and professional engineers in Unit 9. Each unit negotiates its own MOU, so pay scales, benefits, and working conditions can look quite different from one unit to the next.2Legislative Analyst’s Office. State Workforce – Bargaining Unit Profiles
What Employees Have the Right to Do
The Dills Act guarantees state employees the right to form, join, and participate in employee organizations of their own choosing for representation in employment relations with the state. Employees also have the right to refuse to join or participate. Nobody can be forced to unionize as a condition of state employment.1California Legislative Information. California Government Code 3512-3524 – State Employer-Employee Relations
Those rights come with real protection. The state cannot retaliate against, discriminate against, or coerce employees for exercising rights the Act provides, and the protection extends to job applicants as well as current workers. The state also cannot dominate or interfere with the formation of an employee organization, financially support one union over another, or steer employees toward a particular organization.5California Legislative Information. California Government Code 3519
These protections matter most when an employee files a grievance, speaks up about conditions, or campaigns for representation. An agency that reassigns, disciplines, or fires someone in response can be ordered to reverse course by PERB.
What Can Be Bargained
Collective bargaining under the Act covers wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. That last phrase is deliberately broad. It reaches benefits, leave policies, health and safety, disciplinary procedures, and similar matters that shape day-to-day work.6Legislative Analyst’s Office. California Government – Collective Bargaining
The Act draws one clear boundary. Bargaining cannot extend to “the merits, necessity, or organization of any service or activity provided by law or executive order.” The state keeps sole authority over whether to run a program, how to structure its agencies, and which services to offer. A union can bargain over how employees are paid and treated while delivering those services, but not over the decision to create, restructure, or shut them down.7California.Public Law. California Government Code Section 3516
This comes up regularly. When the state decides to automate a process or merge two departments, the union cannot block the decision at the table. It can, however, bargain over the effects on employees — reassignment rights, retraining, severance, and how layoffs are handled.
How Bargaining Works
Sunshining Before Talks Begin
Before any bargaining starts, both sides must present their initial proposals at a public meeting, and those proposals immediately become public records. A mandatory seven-day waiting period follows so the public can review and comment, and the state must hold an open meeting to hear input before negotiations open.8California Legislative Information. California Government Code 3517.5
If either side later introduces a substantive new topic that wasn’t in the original proposals, the new proposal and the other side’s position must be made public within 48 hours. The seven-day waiting period yields only to a genuine emergency such as a natural disaster, in which case results must be made public as soon as reasonably possible.
Negotiations and the MOU
Once public comment closes, formal negotiations begin. The Act requires both sides to meet and confer in good faith, meaning genuine engagement rather than going through the motions.6Legislative Analyst’s Office. California Government – Collective Bargaining Talks usually run through multiple rounds of proposals and counterproposals.
When both sides reach agreement, they write a memorandum of understanding covering the agreed terms — salary schedules, overtime rules, grievance procedures, and everything else that governs the unit.9Legislative Analyst’s Office. State Workforce – State Employee Collective Bargaining The MOU is not final on signatures alone. Any provisions requiring funding or conflicting with existing law must be submitted to the Legislature for approval.8California Legislative Information. California Government Code 3517.5
When Talks Break Down
Not every negotiation ends in agreement. When the parties reach a genuine impasse, the state may implement its last, best, and final offer. Anything in that offer requiring new funding or conflicting with a statute still needs legislative approval. Implementing a final offer does not end the duty to bargain. If circumstances change, both sides must return to the table.10California Legislative Information. California Government Code 3517.8
Union Recognition and Duties
Once an employee organization shows that more than 50 percent of employees in a proposed unit support it, and no competing organization has at least 30 percent support, PERB certifies it as the exclusive representative.11Legal Information Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 8 Section 51096 – Certification of Exclusive Representative The exclusive representative speaks for every employee in the unit, not just dues-paying members, and owes a duty of fair representation to all of them. The union itself cannot coerce employees, refuse to bargain in good faith, or discriminate based on how workers exercise their rights.5California Legislative Information. California Government Code 3519
Unfair Labor Practices and PERB
The Act spells out prohibited conduct on both sides. For the state, unlawful actions include retaliating against or coercing employees for exercising Act rights, denying organizational rights the law guarantees, refusing to meet and confer in good faith, dominating or financially supporting an employee organization, and refusing to participate in good faith in mediation under the Act.5California Legislative Information. California Government Code 3519 Employee organizations face parallel restrictions.
PERB investigates unfair practice charges, runs elections for exclusive representatives, and resolves disputes that come up during bargaining.12California Public Employment Relations Board. About PERB Functions It operates as a quasi-judicial agency with authority to hold hearings, issue decisions, and order remedies.13California Public Employment Relations Board. FAQs – California Public Employment Relations Board
If you believe your employer or union has committed an unfair practice, you can file a charge with PERB. The deadline is six months from the date the conduct occurred. Miss that window and the claim is gone.14California Public Employment Relations Board. The Unfair Practice Charge Process – An Overview
Strikes
The Dills Act neither grants nor prohibits the right to strike. California courts filled the gap. In County Sanitation District No. 2 v. Los Angeles County Employees Association, the state Supreme Court held that public employee strikes are not unlawful unless it is “clearly demonstrated” that the strike creates a substantial and imminent threat to public health or safety. The analysis is case-by-case.15California Public Employment Relations Board. Decision SubTopics 802.01000 – In General
In practice, most MOUs contain no-strike clauses for the life of the agreement. Striking while a valid no-strike clause is in effect can be an unfair labor practice. Sympathy strikes are treated the same way: they’re unfair practices only if the applicable contract prohibits them.
How Janus Changed Dues
The 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31 reshaped the financial side of public-sector unions. The Court held that requiring non-union public employees to pay agency fees violates the First Amendment. No money can be deducted from a public employee’s paycheck for union purposes without the employee’s affirmative consent.16Justia. Janus v. AFSCME, 585 U.S. (2018)
Before Janus, the Dills Act allowed unions to collect “fair share” fees from non-members who benefited from union-negotiated contracts. That’s no longer permitted. Every state employee who wants to financially support their union has to opt in.
California responded with a set of laws aimed at preserving union access. State agencies must give unions new-hire contact information within 30 days, provide at least 10 days’ notice before employee orientations, and grant union access to those orientations. Public employers cannot discourage employees from joining or staying in a union. If the state wants to send employees a mass communication about union membership, it must first meet and confer with the union, and if no agreement is reached, the employer must distribute a comparable union response alongside its own message.