EMPLOYER REFUSAL TO BARGAIN IN GOOD FAITH; NEGOTIATIONS; INDICIA OF SURFACE OR BAD FAITH BARGAINING; TOTALITY OF CIRCUMSTANCES – Time Limit on Negotiations

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The MMBA’s “centerpiece” is its requirement that every local agency “meet and confer in good faith regarding wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment” with unions representing the agency’s employees. (Boling v. PERB (2018) 5 Cal.5th 898, 913.) This central requirement is spelled out at MMBA section 3505, which requires that the parties should meet and confer for a reasonable period of time. The process should include adequate time for the resolution of impasses where specific procedures for such resolution are contained in local rule, regulation, or ordinance, or when such procedures are utilized by mutual consent. An employer cannot use its budget cycle as a reason for shortening negotiations, if doing so does not permit sufficient time for good faith negotiations. An employer may not insist on completing negotiations in time to adopt or implement its budget, or declare impasse merely because a particular deadline attached to the public entity’s budget process is approaching.