GENERAL LEGAL PRINCIPLES; STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION – Amendments to Statute

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1407.00000 – GENERAL LEGAL PRINCIPLES; STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION
1407.02000 – Amendments to Statute

The California Legislature’s 2000 amendment to the MMBA embodied in AB 1852 did not create an exception to the rule that an imposition does not establish a set duration for imposed terms and conditions of employment. The legislative history of AB 1852 contains nothing to support the claim that there is a one-year hiatus on the union’s duty to bargain. The legislative intent was to declare that the employer’s post-impasse imposition does not establish an MOU and therefore does not extinguish the right of the employee organization to negotiate prior to the adoption of the agency’s annual budget, or "as otherwise required by law." (MMBA section 3505.4.) The amended statute is thus a sword enabling the union to assert bargaining rights after imposition. It is not a shield protecting the union from legitimate demands to bargain from the employer.