Opinion ID: 2634751
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Unit 8 (Firefighters)

Text: In 1998, the Department of Personnel Administration, which represents the Governor of California in labor negations with state employee unions, entered into an MOU with the Department of Forestry Firefighters (Firefighters' Union), the bargaining agent for Unit 8. That MOU (hereafter also referred to as the original Unit 8 MOU) sets forth a procedure by which a firefighter can challenge a disciplinary action. Discipline includes punitive dismissals, demotions, suspensions and pay reductions. Discipline can be major or minor. Major discipline is a suspension of more than five days or a pay reduction of more than 5 percent. Anything less than that is minor discipline. The original Unit 8 MOU allows a firefighter to challenge a major disciplinary action in one of two ways: either by seeking review before the State Personnel Board, or by filing a grievance with a Board of Adjustment comprised of four members (two selected by the union and two by the employer). A minor disciplinary action can be challenged only through the Board of Adjustment grievance procedure; that board's decision is final and binding, subject only to confirmation as an arbitration award. (See Code Civ. Proc., § 1280 et seq.) If the Board of Adjustment fails to reach a decision, the disciplinary action would be sustained unless the employee or the Firefighters' Union sought arbitration. The arbitrator's decision would likewise be final and binding, and subject to judicial review only on the grounds set out in Code of Civil Procedure section 1286.2. These include corruption, fraud, or other undue means in procuring the award, and corruption or prejudicial misconduct by an arbitrator. ( Id., subd. (a)(1).) To implement those provisions of the original Unit 8 MOU, the Legislature in 1998 added a new subdivision to section 18670. That statute in subdivision (a) provides for the State Personnel Board to hold hearings and make investigations concerning all [civil service] matters. (§ 18670, subd. (a), italics added.) The 1998 amendment added subdivision (d), which applies only to state employees in State Bargaining Unit 8; it exempts Unit 8 employees from either investigation or hearing by the State Personnel Board. (§ 18670, subd. (d), as amended by Stats.1998, ch. 1024, § 7; subsequently amended by Stats.1999, ch. 446, § 6 and now designated subd. (c).) In 2000, as the result of a lawsuit brought by the Association of California Attorneys and Administrative Law Judges (State Attorneys and ALJ's), the trial court issued a writ of mandate prohibiting the Unit 8 MOU's alternative grievance/arbitration procedure allowing disciplined firefighters to bypass review by the State Personnel Board in favor of review before a different agency. In response, the Department of Personnel Administration and the Firefighters' Union amended the original Unit 8 MOU. The amended Unit 8 MOU, which we discuss below, states that the modification shall be temporary and that the MOU will revert to the original language if the Court of Appeal reverses the Superior Court judgment. The amended Unit 8 MOU gives firefighters subject to minor discipline the choice to seek review before the State Personnel Board or to bypass such review and instead pursue the grievance/arbitration process. (Under the original MOU, a firefighter wishing to challenge a minor discipline could do so only through the grievance/arbitration procedure.) In addition, the amended Unit 8 MOU requires an arbitrator's decision to be submitted to the State Personnel Board to ensure that the decision does not conflict with merit principles.