California Faculty Association (PERB A344H)

STATE OF CALIFORNIA
DECISION OF THE
PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS BOARD
TRUSTEES OF THE CALIFORNIA STATE
UNIVERSITY,
Employer,
and
CALIFORNIA FACULTY ASSOCIATION,
Exclusive Representative.
CALIFORNIA ALLIANCE OF ACADEMIC
STUDENT EMPLOYEES/UAW,
Joined Party.
Case No. LA-UM-723-H
Administrative Appeal
PERB Order No. Ad-344-H
December 28, 2004
Appearance: 	Joel Block, Labor Relations Manager, for Trustees of the California State
University.
Before Duncan, Chairman; Whitehead and Neima, Members.
DECISION
DUNCAN, Chairman: This case is before the Public Employment Relations
Board (PERB or Board) on a motion for acceptance of a late-filed response by the Trustees
of the California State University (CSU) to the California Faculty Association's (CFA)
request for judicial review of Trustees of the California State University (2004) PERB Order
No. Ad-342-H. The Board finds good cause exists to allow the late filing of CSU's response
to CFA's request for judicial review based on the discussion below.
DISCUSSION
CFA filed a request for judicial review and timely served it. 	CSU and the California
Alliance of Academic Student Employees/UAW (CAASE/UAW) each filed a response. 	The
response was due in the PERB Appeals Office on October 29, 2004 (a Friday). The response

from CAASE/UAW was timely received but the response from CSU was one business day
late. It was mailed on October 28, 2004, but not received until Monday, November 1, 2004.
CSU, in its appeal of the determination that the response was late-filed, states that due
to a reorganization of job assignments the staff person mailing the response was not familiar
with the office practice of mailing and faxing the response to the PERB Appeals Office.
(Appeal of CSU, p. 2:12-17; Declaration of Joel Block, p. 2:2-6.)
CSU states there was no prejudice to CFA in that the copy of the response was timely
received by CFA. (Appeal of CSU, p. 2:19-22; Declaration of Joel Block, p. 2:13-16.)
In the past, the Board has found good cause existed where the reason for the delay
was "reasonable and credible" (Barstow Unified School District (1996) PERB Order
No. Ad-277) and "when the party made a conscientious effort to timely file and the delay
caused no prejudice to any party in the case" (United Teachers of Los Angeles (Kestin) (2003)
PERB Order No. Ad-325).
As stated in Fullerton Elementary School District (2004) PERB Order No. Ad-339
"[t]he Board does not condone late filing and will only consider a request to accept a late filing
in circumstances consistent with the case law indicating an honest error, coupled with an
expedient and thorough explanation." We find that good cause to accept the late filed response
of CSU does exist in this incidence.
ORDER
The Trustees of the California State University's request that the Board accept its late-
filed response to the California Faculty Association's request for judicial review in Trustees of
the California State University (2004) PERB Order No. Ad-342-H is hereby GRANTED.
Members Whitehead and Neima joined in this Decision.
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