City of Los Angeles v. Superior Court

After declaring a fiscal emergency, a charter city adopted a mandatory furlough program for its civilian employees. Many employees represented by a union filed grievances against the city, arguing that the furloughs violated duly ratified memorandums of understanding (MOUs) *1091 governing the terms and conditions of their employment. When their grievances were denied, these employees requested arbitration, and when the city refused to arbitrate, their union petitioned the superior court for an order compelling the city to arbitrate the furloughs dispute. The superior court granted the union’s petition.

The city then petitioned the Court of Appeal for a writ of mandate, asking it to overturn the superior court’s decision. After issuing an order to show cause, and setting the matter for a hearing, the Court of Appeal granted the city’s petition. Assuming, without deciding, that the employees’ grievances are subject to arbitration under the terms of the MOUs, the Court of Appeal concluded that the city could not be compelled to arbitrate because arbitration would constitute an unlawful delegation to the arbitrator of discretionary policymaking powers that the city’s…

I respectfully dissent. The majority does not honor the terms of the parties’ agreement and deprives the City of Los Angeles (the City) of its rightful authority to act in a fiscal emergency. I would affirm the Court of Appeal’s judgment, but not for the reasons given by the court below. I agree with the majority that the City could have contracted to arbitrate the validity of a furlough program, without unlawfully delegating its discretionary authority over salaries and budgets. (Maj. opn., ante, at pp. 1094-1096.) However, the City and the Engineers & Architects Association (the Union) made no such agreement. To the contrary, they agreed that the City would retain the authority to relieve employees from duty due to lack of funds, with arbitration limited to the practical consequences of that decision. Only a specific contract provision could restrict the City’s exercise of its prerogative. There is no such provision. Therefore, the decision to impose furloughs was a reserved management right, beyond the scope of arbitration.

*1106 The majority recognizes that the memorandums of understanding (MOUs) here do not authorize an arbitrator to determine whether particular disputes are…