Social Service Union, Local 535 v. County of Monterey

In this case we are asked to decide whether a trial court committed reversible error in failing to issue a written statement of decision after a request from counsel following a one-day trial, and whether respondent Monterey County Department of Social Services’ institution of a policy of “protected time” for its employees was a mandatory subject of bargaining under the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (hereinafter referred to as MMBA), Government Code section 3500 et seq. We need not reach the latter issue, since we conclude that counsel’s request for a statement of decision was timely made, and that the trial court’s failure to issue such a statement was reversible error.

Facts

Appellant is the collective bargaining agent for employees of respondent. The question of “protected time,” or time in which eligibility workers could work on eligibility and grant determinations free of interruptions, had arisen in various forms since 1974. In October 1986, respondent established an ad hoc committee to study the use of protected time and to make recommendations to its director. In February 1987, appellant notified respondent of its position that protected time was the subject of the…