Saturday, January 22, 2011

IAFF v. City of Richmond Decision Expected on Monday

The California Supreme Court has given notice that a decision in International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 188, AFL-CIO v. Public Employment Relations Board (City of Richmond) (Case No. S172377) ("Richmond") will be issued on Monday morning.

As a recap, the Richmond case presents the following issues:
(1) Is the decision by the Public Employment Relations Board not to issue an unfair labor practices complaint under the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (Gov. Code, § 3500 et seq.) subject to judicial review? (2) Is a decision to lay off firefighters for fiscal reasons a matter that is subject to collective bargaining under the act?
Given the questions asked by the Justices at oral argument, my prediction is that the Court will answer the first question "yes" and the second question "no."  We'll see if I'm right.