Court Opinion

ID: 9725449
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 11:48:25.438338+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:12:12.370154
License: Public Domain

TAMURA, Acting P. J.
I concur in the majority's conclusions except as to the irrigators and shovelers. In my opinion, there was substantial evidence to support the board’s finding that layoff and refusal to rehire the six irrigators and shovelers constituted an unfair labor practice in violation of Labor Code section 1153, subdivisions (a) and (c). To that extent I respectfully dissent.
The majority’s analysis, particularly as it relates to the unfair labor practice complaint concerning the irrigators and shovelers, focuses excessively upon the sufficiency of the evidence to support the administrative law officer’s (ALO) recommended decision instead of upon the substantiality of the evidence to support the board’s finding. In N. L. R. B. v. Pacific Grinding Wheel Co., Inc. (9th Cir. 1978) 572 F.2d 1343, the court aptly said of a somewhat similar judicial review approach advocated by the employer: “The company, to maximize the weight of the Administrative Law Judge’s refusal to find a failure to bargain, argues that there is no evidence to support the Board’s overruling of his recommendation. However, this is an incorrect formulation of the issue. The standard of review does not change simply because the Board has disagreed with the Administrative Law Judge.” (Id., at p. 1347.)
In interpreting the judicial review standard prescribed by the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. § 160 (f)), which is identical to that set forth in Labor Code section 1160.8, the federal courts have developed rules governing review of the labor board’s factual findings when the findings are in disagreement with the recommended decision of the administrative law judge. I would supplement the majority’s exposition *280of the law governing the scope of review with additional pertinent legal principles evolved under the federal experience.1
We must start with the fundamental proposition that in reviewing factual findings of the board we are not empowered to exercise our independent judgment on the weight of the evidence; our function is limited to determining whether the findings are supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole. (Lab. Code, § 1160.8, Tex-Cal Land Management, Inc. v. Agricultural Labor Relations Bd. (1979) 24 Cal.3d 335, 346 [156 Cal.Rptr. 1, 595 P.2d 579]; Universal Camera Corp. v. Labor Bd. (1951) 340 U.S. 474, 484-485, 488 [95 L.Ed. 456, 465-466, 71 S.Ct. 456].) Accordingly, if the evidence will support two fairly conflicting views, we may not displace the board’s choice even though we might have reached a different conclusion had we been the fact finder. (Universal Camera Corp. v. Labor Bd., supra, 340 U.S. 474, 488 [95 L.Ed. 456, 467-468]; N. L. R. B. v. Pacific Grinding Wheel Co., Inc., supra, 572 F.2d 1343, 1347.)
Nor is the standard of review altered simply because the board has disagreed with the ALO; this court must still start with the board’s finding and give it conclusive effect if it is supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole. (N. L. R. B. v. Pacific Grinding Wheel Co., Inc., supra, 572 F.2d 1343, 1347; N. L. R. B. v. Miller Redwood Company (9th Cir. 1969) 407 F.2d 1366, 1369.) “[The] statutorily mandated deference to findings of fact runs in favor of the Board, not in favor of the initial trier-of-facts, the administrative law judge.” (Penasquitos Village, Inc. v. N. L. R. B. (9th Cir. 1977) 565 F.2d 1074, 1076.)
The Legislature has placed upon the board, not on the ALO or the reviewing court, the responsibility for deciding whether a preponderance of the evidence shows that the person charged has engaged in an unfair labor practice. (Lab. Code, § 1160.3.) “The responsibility for decision thus placed on the Board is wholly inconsistent with the notion that it has power to reverse an examiner’s findings only when they are ‘clearly *281erroneous.’” (Universal Camera Corp. v. Labor Bd., supra, 340 U.S. 474, 492 [95 L.Ed. 456, 470].)2
“The Board is free to draw its own inferences from the evidence available to it. Thus, if the Board can point to evidence which supports its inference, courts have allowed the Board’s finding to stand despite the fact that the Administrative Law Judge interpreted the facts contrary to the inference drawn. [Citations.] [The] recent decision in Penasquitos Village, Inc. v. NLRB, 565 F.2d 1074 (9th Cir. 1977) illustrates that the Board has broad power to draw inferences from all the evidence presented.
“It is also well established that the Board need not treat self-serving declarations of an employer as conclusive, even if not contradicted by any direct testimony in the record. [Citation.] And it is disputed by none that, particularly when the Board is trying to establish motive and intent, all the circumstances of the case must be considered. [Citations.]” (N.L.R.B. v. Pacific Grinding Wheel Co., Inc., supra, 572 F.2d 1343, 1347.)
Applying the foregoing principles to the instant case, there is substantial evidence on the record as a whole to support the board’s finding that layoff and refusal to rehire the six irrigators constituted an unfair *282labor practice. Five of the six were the most active union organizers and supporters among petitioner’s employees; four of them were delegates to the union convention held in August 1977, a month before the dismissal; and one was a fund raiser for the convention. The six were laid off in September 1977 and not a single one of them was rehired even though eleven irrigators and shovelers were hired during October and November 1977. There was substantial evidence of antiunion animus on the part of supervisor Loureiro who gave the layoff orders and told the workers they would be recalled either in October or when more work was available. Petitioner attempted to establish economic justification for the layoffs through the testimony of its bookkeeper. However, she was neither an accountant nor an expert in crop production; she admitted she was mistaken as to certain loss estimates to which she had testified; no company profit and loss statement was introduced; much of her testimony was based, not upon company records, but upon estimates given to her by her superiors. The weight to be given to her testimony was a matter for the board. Furthermore, petitioners continued on the payroll more than six irrigators and shovelers and hired eleven more in October and November 1977. The board could reasonably find that while economic considerations may have justified a reduction in the work force, it did not justify dismissal of the most active union supporters while retaining others and did not justify refusal to rehire any of the dismissed union leaders while other hiring and rehiring was taking place. As the Supreme Court said in Tex-Cal Land Management, Inc. v. Agricultural Labor Relations Bd., supra, 24 Cal.3d 335, in upholding an ALRB finding that certain layoffs were discriminatory despite the employer’s contention that the layoffs were economically justified: “Yet an apparently justifiable ground for discharge may in fact be a pretext for unlawful discrimination.” (Id., at pp. 352-353.)
In Abatti Farms, Inc. v. Agricultural Labor Relations Bd., supra, 107 Cal.App.3d 317, Division One of this court upheld a board finding that layoff and refusal to rehire workers under like circumstances constituted an unfair labor practice, stating: “We conclude the Board findings of impermissible discharge or refusal to rehire are entitled to enforcement. The evidence of wrongful motive is circumstantial, but sufficient. We may not substitute our judgment for that of the Board in its area of special expertise, the assessment of the weight of circumstantial evidence in context.” (Abatti Farms, Inc. v. Agricultural Labor Relations Bd., supra, 107 Cal.App.3d 317, 333.) Those observations apply with equal force in this case.
*283I would uphold the board’s findings in all respects except as to the discriminatory work assignment complaint involving Jose Luis Menesis and would remand the matter for modification of the board’s remedial order in accordance with the views expressed by the majority except insofar as it requires annulment of the order as to the six irrigators and shovelers.
The petitions of all the parties for a hearing by the Supreme Court were denied January 14, 1981. Bird, C. J., did not participate therein.

 For an excellent discussion of the scope of judicial review of the board’s factual findings, particularly when the board disagrees with the ALO’s recommended findings, see Justice Staniforth’s concurring opinion in Abatti Farms, Inc. v. Agricultural Labor Relations Bd. (1980) 107 Cal.App.3d 317, 333 [165 Cal.Rptr. 870], hearing denied, August 28, 1980.

 The majority cites recent decisions of the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal in the workers’ compensation field pertaining to the weight to be given certain findings of a workers’ compensation judge as having some bearing on the weight to be given the ALO’s recommended decision. The principle has been expressed in the following terms: “When a referee’s finding of compensable injury is supported by solid, credible evidence, it is to be accorded great weight by the Board and should be rejected only on the basis of contrary evidence of considerable substantiality.” (Italics supplied, Lamb v. Workmen’s Comp. Appeals Bd., (1974) 11 Cal.3d 274, 281 [113 Cal.Rptr. 162, 520 P.2d 978]; Garza v. Workmen’s Comp. App. Bd. (1970) 3 Cal.3d 312, 318-319 [90 Cal.Rptr. 355, 475 P.2d 451]; Greenberg v. Workmen’s Comp. Appeals Bd. (1974) 37 Cal.App.3d 792, 799 [112 Cal.Rptr. 626].) It should be noted that in all of the cited cases, the referee found “compensable injury” but the board, on' reconsideration, set aside the referee’s decision. The great weight given a referee’s finding of “compensable injury” when supported by such credible evidence comports with the legislative policy that the Workers’ Compensation Act must be liberally construed in the employee’s favor (Lab. Code, § 3202) and that all reasonable doubts as to whether an injury arose out of the employment should be resolved in favor of the employee. (Garza v. Workmen’s Comp. App. Bd., supra, 3 Cal.3d 312, 317.) There is no comparable policy underlying the ALRA which would require like weight to be given an ALO’s decision declining to find an unfair labor practice. Indeed, “the entire ALRA is designed to provide agricultural workers with protection of their collective bargaining rights comparable to that provided nonagricultural workers by the NLRA.” (Tex-Cal Land Management, Inc. v. Agricultural Labor Relations Bd., supra, 24 Cal.3d 335, 345.)