City of Los Angeles v. the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Respondent Engineers & Architects Association, Real…

Summary

The court held that arbitrating employees’ challenge to a fiscal-emergency furlough program would not unlawfully delegate the city council’s discretionary salary-setting or budgeting authority because the arbitrator would only interpret the existing MOUs. It also held that the MOUs broadly required arbitration of the dispute and did not unmistakably exclude challenges to the furlough program itself. The Court of Appeal’s judgment was therefore reversed. Justice Corrigan, dissenting, would have affirmed because the management-rights clause reserved furlough authority to the City and limited arbitration to the furloughs’ practical consequences.