Charter City Must Conduct Arbitration For Furlough Grievances.

A charter city adopted a mandatory furlough program for its civilian employees.  Employees lodged grievances, arguing furloughs violated duly ratified memorandums of understanding [MOUs] with their union. The grievances were denied and the employees requested arbitration. The city refused to arbitrate, and the superior court granted the union’s petition for an order compelling the city to arbitrate the furlough dispute. The Court of Appeal concluded the city could not be compelled to arbitrate because arbitration would constitute an unlawful delegation of discretionary policymaking powers vested with the City Council. Agreeing with the trial court, the California Supreme Court reversed the appellate court’s decision, concluding arbitration does not constitute an unlawful delegation of discretionary authority to an arbitrator and that the city is contractually obligated to arbitrate the dispute. City of Los Angeles v. Sup.Ct. (Engineers & Architects Assoc.)  (Cal. Sup. Ct.; June 20, 2013) 56 Cal.4th 1086, [302 P.3d 194; 158 Cal.Rptr.3d 1].