EMPLOYER INTERFERENCE, RESTRAINT, COERCION; DEFENSES – Business Necessity

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* * * OVERRULED IN PART ON OTHER GROUNDS by City of Roseville (2016) PERB Decision No. 2505-M. * * *

Employer coercively threatened employees with layoff in violation of MMBA section 3506 when, after employees filed unit modification petition, employer told employees that there would be layoffs if they went with the union. The Board rejected the employer’s contention that it was merely stating an honest and reasonable projection of future layoffs because of budget deficits, as it did not implement layoffs because of a legitimate budget deficit, but rather to retaliate against the employees. Even taking the budget defense as legitimate, it is not based solely on legal expenses but on the entire budget, and employer did not give employees an honest and reasonable projection of his own view of the possibility of layoffs, but focused only on the detrimental effect of unionization.