On September 30, 2025, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 288, which amends the state’s labor law and significantly expands the power of its Public Employment Relations Board (“PERB”) to cover private-sector employees currently under the exclusive jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”).
Under AB 288, PERB can now conduct union elections, process unfair labor practice charges, seek injunctions and penalties against as well as order employers to bargain with unions representing employees who previously were only subject to the Board’s jurisdiction. The state law also empowers PERB to issue civil monetary penalties against employers for labor-law violations and order parties to binding arbitration if they fail to quickly agree to a CBA.
AB 288 has a phased rollout through January 1, 2027, in the run-up to which PERB can act where the NLRB has “expressly or impliedly ceded jurisdiction” and gives examples, including when the Board lacks a quorum, if the U.S. Supreme Court holds Board members’ job protections to be unconstitutional, or when the NLRB cannot process cases because courts have issued injunctions against its structure or authority on constitutional grounds.
California’s legislation comes on the heels of and follows the same logic behind New York’s recently enacted “NLRB Trigger Bill” that similarly empowers the Empire State’s PERB to step into the shoes of the Board, which we covered here. The NLRB has lacked a...
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