The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA) (Gov. Code, §§ 3500–3511) governs “disputes regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment between public employers and public” unions. (Id., § 3500.) Among other things, the MMBA establishes procedures for resolving those disputes if the public employer and union reach an impasse during negotiations. (Gov. Code, §§ 3505.4 & 3505.5.) Under those impasse resolution procedures, a factfinding panel may “recommend terms of settlement . . . .” (Id., § 3505.5, subd. (a).) But that recommendation is “advisory only.” (Ibid.) Thus, notwithstanding the panel’s recommendation, the public employer “may, after holding a public hearing regarding the impasse, implement its last, best, and final offer.” (Id., § 3505.7.)
The MMBA also provides an alternative for charter cities or counties. Those cities and counties may adopt their own impasse resolution procedures in lieu of the MMBA’s procedures, so long as their procedures include “a process for binding arbitration.” (Gov. Code, § 3505.5, subd. (e).)
Petitioner City and County of San Francisco (City), a charter city and county, has opted for this alternative. Under the Charter of the City and County of San Francisco (Charter), certain labor disputes are eligible for interest arbitration if the City and its employee union reach an impasse. If the dispute is eligible for and submitted to arbitration, then the arbitrators must choose between the “last offer[s] of settlement on each of the remaining issues in dispute” between the City and its union. (Charter, § A8.409-4.) Once the arbitrators make that choice, their decision is “final and binding,” and the City has no other recourse. (Ibid.)
Real party in interest Municipal Attorneys Association of San Francisco (MAA) represents City employees who are “exempt from competitive civil service selection, appointment, and removal procedures” under the Charter. (§ 10.104.) As “exempt appointments” (S.F. Civ. Service Com. Rules, rule 114, § 114.25), MAA members are at-will employees who “serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority” and may be terminated without cause (§ 10.104). During its most recent labor negotiations with the City, the MAA made two proposals that would have altered the at-will status of its members. The first would have limited the City’s ability to discharge MAA members by requiring “just cause” for any “discipline,” including “terminations (discharges).” The second would have required the City to lay off MAA members in order of their seniority. After the City refused to submit these proposals to binding interest arbitration, the MAA filed an unfair practice charge with respondent Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). PERB found that the MAA’s proposals were eligible for arbitration under the impasse resolution provisions of the Charter and held that the City engaged in bad faith bargaining by refusing to submit those proposals to arbitration. We, however, find that the MAA’s proposals are not eligible for arbitration under the Charter. We therefore vacate PERB’s decision to the contrary.
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