Hitchcock Transportation Co. v. Industrial Welfare Commission

Opinion

TOBRINER, Acting C. J. In October 1976, a few days before the 1976 wage orders promulgated by the Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC or commission) were scheduled to go into effect, several employer organizations and individual employers (employers) in the transportation and amusement and recreation industries instituted these two mandate actions in the Kings County Superior Court, challenging the validity of orders 9-76 (transportation industry) and 10-76 (amusement and recreation industry). The superior court stayed the challenged wage orders pending the resolution of the actions, consolidated the cases for trial and ultimately concluded that the wage orders were invalid on numerous grounds. The IWC appealed from the judgments in favor of the employers.1

While this case was pending on appeal, we rendered our decision in California Hotel & Motel Assn. v. Industrial Welfare Com. (1979) 25 Cal.3d 200 [157 Cal.Rptr. 840, 599 P.2d 31]. We concluded that the IWC had misinterpreted Labor Code section 1177’s requirement relating to the preparation of a statement as to the basis of its orders when it promulgated order 5-76, a separate 1976 wage order covering the public housekeeping industry.

As the IWC acknowledges, orders 9-76 and 10-76, like order 5-76 before us in California Hotel & Motel Assn., contain no explicit provision designated as a statement as to basis. The “To Whom It May [739]Concern” paragraph of orders 9-76 and 10-76 are in all relevant respects identical to the similarly entitled paragraph in order 5-76. (See 25 Cal. 3d at pp. 209-210 & fn. 19.) In light of the California Hotel & Motel Assn, decision, the trial court judgment in this case—invalidating orders 9-76 and 10-76—must be affirmed since the statements as to basis are inadequate. In view of this conclusion, we need not address the remainder of the trial court’s conclusions, although we do note that many of those conclusions are contrary to the determinations we have reached this day in Industrial Welfare Com. v. Superior Court, ante, page 690 [166 Cal.Rptr. 331, 613 P.2d 579],

Although the IWC virtually concedes the invalidity of the orders in question under California Hotel & Motel Assn., the commission asks this court to remand this case to the IWC for further proceedings rather than simply to affirm the judgments in favor of the employers. The IWC relies upon the fact that in the California Hotel & Motel Assn. case itself, we remanded the matter to the commission to permit it to prepare an adequate statement as to basis. (See 25 Cal.3d at p. 216.)