republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20212022/ab-2556.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Local public employee organizations."
description: "The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act contains various provisions that govern collective bargaining of local represented employees and delegates jurisdiction to the Public Employment Relations Board to resolve disputes and enforce the statutory duties and rights of local public agency employers and employees. The act requires the governing body of a public agency to meet and confer in good faith regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment with representatives of recognized employee organizations. Under the act, if the representatives of the public agency and the employee organization fail to reach an agreement, they may mutually agree on the appointment of a mediator and equally share the cost. Existing law gives public employees the right to refuse to join or participate in the activities of employee organizations, and provides that employees who are members of a bona fide religion, body, or sect that has historically held conscientious objections to joining or financially supporting public employee organizations are not required to join or financially support a public employee organization as a condition of employment, as specified."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "AB 2556"
citation: "California AB 2556 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Local public employee organizations."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["O'Donnell"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 21
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2022-02-17"
last_action: "2022-09-18"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/7bbb9a90-2142-4b74-9972-4eef3df6bcb9"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2556"
source_hash: "139753e6237a7f762ff5ca496eb1174bdacacc4fd6e589e8dbecd78afdc27875"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 2556 (20212022) — Local public employee organizations.

The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act contains various provisions that govern collective bargaining of local represented employees and delegates jurisdiction to the Public Employment Relations Board to resolve disputes and enforce the statutory duties and rights of local public agency employers and employees. The act requires the governing body of a public agency to meet and confer in good faith regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment with representatives of recognized employee organizations. Under the act, if the representatives of the public agency and the employee organization fail to reach an agreement, they may mutually agree on the appointment of a mediator and equally share the cost. Existing law gives public employees the right to refuse to join or participate in the activities of employee organizations, and provides that employees who are members of a bona fide religion, body, or sect that has historically held conscientious objections to joining or financially supporting public employee organizations are not required to join or financially support a public employee organization as a condition of employment, as specified.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/17/22 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2556&version=20210AB255699INT)
2. **06/22/22 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2556&version=20210AB255698AMD)
3. **08/25/22 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2556&version=20210AB255697AMD)
4. **09/18/22 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2556&version=20210AB255695CHP)
5. **AB2556** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2556)
6. **09/01/22 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2556&version=20210AB255696ENR)

## Votes

- 3rd Reading AB2556 O'Donnell By Cortese — **38–1** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. — **12–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **5–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 2556 O'Donnell Assembly Third Reading — **58–0** (pass) · lower
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass — **6–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **4–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 2556 O'Donnell Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **71–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- O'Donnell — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2022-02-17** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2022-02-18** From printer. May be heard in committee March 20.
- **2022-03-10** Referred to Com. on P.E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2022-03-30** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (March 30). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2022-04-27** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (April 27). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-04-28** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2022-05-09** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 58. Noes 0. Page 4607.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2022-05-10** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2022-05-18** Referred to Com. on L., P.E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2022-06-22** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on L., P.E. & R. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-29** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 4. Noes 0.) (June 29). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2022-08-08** In committee: Referred to suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2022-08-11** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 6. Noes 0.) (August 11). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-08-11** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2022-08-25** Read third time and amended. Ordered to third reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2022-08-29** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 38. Noes 1. Page 5210.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2022-08-29** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2022-08-30** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 71. Noes 0.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-09-09** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2022-09-18** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2022-09-18** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 412, Statutes of 2022. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/7bbb9a90-2142-4b74-9972-4eef3df6bcb9`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).