Newmarker

Plaintiffs, who are employees of the defendants, filed a complaint for declaratory relief to determine their rights to sick leave accrued before July 1, 1954. Both sides waived a jury trial. The court made findings of fact that the plaintiffs were not entitled to any sick leave and that all accrued sick leave accumulated by the plaintiffs up to July 1, 1954, was cancelled on that date, and entered judgment in favor of the defendants. Plaintiffs ’ motion for a new trial was denied, and this appeal from the judgment ensued.

The chronology of events leading to the controversy is as follows: On June 30, 1954, all of the plaintiffs were employed at the University of California in Berkeley, as full time Build ing and Construction Trades employees. Under the wage policy of the defendants in effect at that time, all of the plaintiffs were paid the prevailing construction wages paid by private employers in Alameda County for comparable services, excluding social security and unemployment insurance benefits, but including the monetary equivalent of health and welfare fringe benefits, and nonacademic university personnel benefits such as vacation and sick leave. It was stipulated that under…