Assemblymember Roger Hernández introduced a new bill, AB 729, to create a new privilege, giving union representatives the right to refuse to disclose their communication with union members. The law would create a new evidentiary privilege in California, like attorney-client, priest-penitent, and doctor-patient privilege.
The proposed law would give union representatives the "privilege to refuse to disclose any confidential information he or she may have acquired, whether or not the information was revealed in a communication between the union agent and a represented employee, in attending to his or her professional duties or while acting in his or her representative capacity" with some exceptions. In discipline cases, the employee would have the right to insist the union representative not disclose communications. In all other cases, the union is the sole holder of the privilege.
