Six opinions later, employee right to speak upheld

There are employments that cross jurisdictional lines, whose disciplinary systems have elements of union rules, safety rules, government review, and the rights in arbitration. The following case presents a wide mixture of those elements, though arbitration will prevail. 

Harassment or protected advocacy in a state prison? 

Tracylyn Lopez was a correctional officer at Salinas Valley State Prison since 2002. She also serves as a job steward and union representative for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA). As a correctional officer, she received regular training on ethics and professionalism, which includes admonitions against the “code of silence,” keeping quiet about the misdeeds of fellow officers. Correctional officers are expected to refrain from using profanity at the prison, though rough language is commonly used in conversation between them. 

Lopez had a conversation with two officers in June 2017, in which she described them as “assholes” and said “they were on her ‘shit list.’” She received a notice of adverse action for discourteous treatment of those other officers in October 2017. It was unusual for correctional officers to be disciplined for using profanity, and she believed she was singled out for being an active and outspoken union job steward. She appealed the notice of adverse action to the State Personnel Board (SPB), and the matter was eventually settled with the issuance of a letter of reprimand in January 2018.