Sonoma County Organization of Public/Private Employees v. County of Sonoma

The primary question presented is whether a concerted series of intermittent work stoppages by public employees can constitute an emergency which exempts the public agency employer from the “meet and confer” obligation imposed by the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (Gov. Code, § 3500 et seq.). Our answer is yes.

Background

In the summer of 1989, the County of Sonoma (County) was negotiating a new labor contract with its workforce, the majority of whom were represented by the Sonoma County Organization of Public/Private Employees (SCOPE). Dissatisfied with the progress of the negotiations, the employees began to subject the County to job actions at county facilities. These job actions, which commenced on July 7th, took a variety of forms, most notably what the County administrator termed “a series of unpredictable rolling sickouts and strikes .... occurring] on a sporadic and erratic basis.” The County administrator prepared a report detailing the “unauthorized absences” on a day-by-day basis for the affected departments. Even with its undecipherable bureaucratic acronyms and designations, the report gives a feel for the scope and development of the “rolling sickouts”:

July…