For purposes of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply:

(a) “Appointment” means the offer to and acceptance by a person of a position in the trial court in accordance with this chapter and the trial court’s personnel policies, procedures, and plans.

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(b) “Employee organization” means either of the following:

(1) Any organization that includes trial court employees and has as one of its primary purposes representing those employees in their relations with that trial court.

(2) Any organization that seeks to represent trial court employees in their relations with that trial court.

(c) “Hiring” means appointment as defined in subdivision (a).

(d) “Mediation” means effort by an impartial third party to assist in reconciling a dispute regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment between representatives of the trial court and the recognized employee organization or recognized employee organizations through interpretation, suggestion, and advice.

(e) “Meet and confer in good faith” means that a trial court or representatives as it may designate, and representatives of recognized employee organizations, shall have the mutual obligation personally to meet and confer promptly upon request by either party and continue for a reasonable period of time in order to exchange freely information, opinions, and proposals, and to endeavor to reach agreement on matters within the scope of representation. The process should include adequate time for the resolution of impasses where specific procedures for resolution are contained in this chapter or in a local rule, or when the procedures are utilized by mutual consent.

(f) “Personnel rules,” “personnel policies, procedures, and plans,” and “rules and regulations” mean policies, procedures, plans, rules, or regulations adopted by a trial court or its designee pertaining to conditions of employment of trial court employees, subject to meet and confer in good faith.

(g) “Promotion” means promotion within the trial court as defined in the trial court’s personnel policies, procedures, and plans, subject to meet and confer in good faith.

(h) “Recognized employee organization” means an employee organization that has been formally acknowledged to represent trial court employees by the county under Sections 3500 to 3510, inclusive, prior to the implementation date of this chapter, or by the trial court under former Rules 2201 to 2210, inclusive, of the California Rules of Court, as those rules read on April 23, 1997, Sections 70210 to 70218, inclusive, or Article 3 (commencing with Section 71630).

(i) “Subordinate judicial officer” means an officer appointed to perform subordinate judicial duties as authorized by § 22 of Article VI of the California Constitution, including, but not limited to, a court commissioner, probate commissioner, child support commissioner, referee, traffic referee, juvenile court referee, and juvenile hearing officer.

(j) “Transfer” means transfer within the trial court as defined in the trial court’s personnel policies, procedures, and plans, subject to meet and confer in good faith.

(k) “Trial court” means a superior court.

(l) “Trial court employee” means a person who is both of the following:

(1) Paid from the trial court’s budget, regardless of the funding source. For the purpose of this paragraph, “trial court’s budget” means funds from which the presiding judge of a trial court, or the presiding judge’s designee, has authority to control, authorize, and direct expenditures, including, but not limited to, local revenues, all grant funds, and trial court operations funds.

(2) Subject to the trial court’s right to control the manner and means of the person’s work because of the trial court’s authority to hire, supervise, discipline, and terminate employment. For purposes of this paragraph only, the “trial court” includes the judges of a trial court or their appointees who are vested with or delegated the authority to hire, supervise, discipline, and terminate.

(m) A person is a “trial court employee” if and only if both paragraphs (1) and (2) of subdivision (l) are true irrespective of job classification or whether the functions performed by that person are identified in Rule 10.810 of the California Rules of Court. “Trial court employee” includes those subordinate judicial officers who satisfy paragraphs (1) and (2) of subdivision (l). The phrase “trial court employee” does not include temporary employees hired through agencies, jurors, individuals hired by the trial court pursuant to an independent contractor agreement, individuals for whom the county or trial court reports income to the Internal Revenue Service on a Form 1099 and does not withhold employment taxes, sheriffs, temporary judges, and judges whether elected or appointed. Any temporary employee, whether hired through an agency or not, shall not be employed in the trial court for a period exceeding 180 calendar days, except that for court reporters in a county of the first class, a trial court and a recognized employee organization may provide otherwise by mutual agreement in a memorandum of understanding or other agreement.

(Amended by Stats. 2021, Ch. 117, Sec. 7. (AB 414) Effective January 1, 2022.)