## Facts

- A teachers’ association represented approximately 320 certificated employees in a California public school district governed by the Educational Employment Relations Act (EERA).
- The parties’ first collective-bargaining agreement was set to expire August 31, 1978, and negotiations for a successor agreement began March 23, 1978.
- The district and association met sixteen times through September 15, 1978, but remained deadlocked on most issues.
- The school year began September 11, 1978.
- On September 15, 1978, the parties mutually declared an impasse and requested statutory impasse assistance under the EERA (mediation and related procedures).
- PERB appointed a mediator on September 20, 1978.
- On or shortly after September 15, 1978, the district unilaterally implemented terms from its “last best offer.”
- The association filed an unfair labor practice charge alleging violations of Government Code section 3543.5, including refusal to bargain in good faith.
- After a formal hearing, PERB adopted a rule treating unilateral implementation of negotiable terms before completion of statutory impasse procedures as a per se unfair practice, and also found the district failed to participate in good faith in impasse procedures concerning the effects of certain decisions.

## Issues

1. Whether PERB reasonably construed the EERA in holding that unilateral implementation of changes in negotiable employment conditions during the pendency of statutory impasse procedures is a per se unfair labor practice.
2. Whether PERB exceeded its jurisdiction in finding the district failed to participate in good faith in the statutory impasse procedure as to effects bargaining.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal denied the district’s petition for writ of review and left PERB’s order in place.
- The court held PERB’s per se rule barring unilateral changes before exhaustion of the EERA impasse procedures was a reasonable interpretation of the statute and within PERB’s authority.
- The court held PERB acted within its jurisdiction in finding the district failed to participate in good faith in impasse procedures concerning the effects of certain employment decisions.

## Legal Principles

- Courts give substantial weight to PERB’s reasonable construction of the EERA, the statute PERB is charged with enforcing.
- Under the EERA, a public school employer commits a per se unfair labor practice by unilaterally changing negotiable terms and conditions of employment after impasse is declared but before statutory impasse procedures (including mediation and fact-finding) are completed, absent a valid defense.
- Federal NLRA doctrine may be persuasive in interpreting parallel statutory language, but it does not control when the EERA’s statutory structure and purposes support a different rule.
- The EERA’s impasse procedures are substantive parts of the bargaining process; unilateral implementation that bypasses them frustrates the statutory scheme.
- The duty to bargain in good faith includes good-faith participation in impasse procedures and good-faith bargaining over the effects of certain management decisions where effects are negotiable.

## Conclusion

The court upheld PERB’s authority to treat unilateral implementation of negotiable employment changes during ongoing EERA impasse procedures as a per se unfair labor practice and affirmed PERB’s determination that the district also violated the EERA by failing to participate in good faith on effects issues during the statutory impasse process.


Moreno Valley Unified Sch. Dist. v. Pub. Emp. Rels. Bd., 142 Cal. App. 3d 191, 191 Cal. Rptr. 60 (Ct. App. 1983)