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Newsletters
CONSTITUTIONALITY OF BINDING ARBITRATION
TAKEN UP BY SUPREME COURT
As most readers are now aware, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth District has held SB 402 unconstitutional in a case brought by the Riverside County Deputy's Sheriffs Association. The Supreme Court has since agreed to decide the matter. Once the Supreme Court decides to hear a matter, the Appellate Court's Decision is effectively voided.
Lackie, Dammeier & McGill, representing the Los Angeles Police Protective League and over 100 other police associations throughout the State will be filing an amicus (Curie Friend of the Court) brief in the California Supreme Court to support the validity of SB 402. Public employers have been arguing that SB 402 violates the California Constitution, Section 11, Subdivision (a) which provides "the legislature may not delegate to a private person or body power to make, control, appropriate, supervise, or interfere with County or Municipal Corporation improvements, money, or property or to levy taxes or assessments, or perform municipal functions." The argument goes that since binding arbitration requires the appointment of a private body (the arbitration panel) the power to set wages for municipal employees (police officers), it runs a foul of the express provisions of the California Constitution. The pivotal issue then becomes whether or not wages for public safety officers are a "local" matter or a matter of "statewide concern". The Court of Appeal in the Riverside County case held that wages were a local matter. There are however strong arguments, which the Supreme Court could adopt, to make public safety officers wages a matter of statewide concern and thus uphold SB 402. When AB 301 (POBR) was passed, charter cities attempted to claim that disciplining officers was a local matter and thus cannot be controlled by the State Legislature. The Supreme Court in Baggett v. Gates (1982) 32 Cal 3D 128 held that the maintenance of stable employment relations between police officers and their employers is a matter of statewide concern. The argument in support of SB 402 stresses the point that negotiations at impasse, resulting in labor unrest with police officers and fire fighters is more than the local matter and as in Baggett, is a matter of statewide concern.
While labor groups are hopeful that SB 402 will be held constitutional by the Supreme Court, efforts have already begun to place a Constitutional Amendment on the ballot providing for binding arbitration in the event we are unsuccessful at the Supreme Court.
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