IMPASSE PROCEDURES; IN GENERAL; DUTY TO PARTICIPATE IN GOOD FAITH – Post-Impasse

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An employer’s right to impose terms is dependent on prior good faith negotiations from their inception through exhaustion of statutory or other applicable impasse resolution procedures. (City of Glendale (2020) PERB Decision No. 2694-M, p. 60; City of San Ramon (2018) PERB Decision No. 2571-M, p. 6; Fresno County In-Home Supportive Services Public Authority (2015) PERB Decision No. 2418-M, p. 54.) Prior or contemporaneous unfair practices may interfere with the bargaining process and invalidate any impasse. (Glendale, supra, PERB Decision No. 2694-M, pp. 68-70; Fresno, supra, PERB Decision No. 2418-M, pp. 54-55.) Accordingly, as part of its required showing of a bona fide, good faith impasse, the employer must demonstrate that unfair practices did not infringe on good faith bargaining or otherwise contribute to the parties’ deadlock. (Glendale, supra, PERB Decision No. 2694-M, pp. 68-70; Fresno, supra, PERB Decision No. 2418-M, pp. 54-55.) Because the County failed to rescind its new policy before bargaining with the Union, the County improperly forced the Union to bargain from a disadvantage and made impossible the good faith give-and-take that is the essence of labor relations. Longstanding precedent required that, in order to permit good faith bargaining to occur, the County needed to restore the status quo