San Francisco Fire Fighters, Local 798, International Ass'n of FireFighters, AFL-CIO v. Civil Service Commission of City

Opinion

HANING, J. Appellants San Francisco Fire Fighters Local 798, et al., appeal a judgment denying their petition for writ of mandate commanding respondents Civil Service Commission et al., to readjust appellants’ salaries by revising the wage and salary surveys upon which the city charter requires such salaries to be based. Specifically, appellants sought to require respondents to include in their wage and salary surveys the employees’ share of the required contributions to the Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) which some governmental entities within the survey area pay on behalf of their employees. We conclude that the city charter does not permit the inclusion of such payments within the salary survey, and affirm.

The San Francisco Charter provides that appellants’ salaries shall be determined by, and based upon, the prevailing wage of like positions in certain other defined communities. Pursuant to charter section 8.405, firefighters are paid the average of the maximum rates of compensation paid comparable firefighter classifications in all California cities with a population over 350,000. “Rates of compensation” is defined as “applying] only to a basic amount of wages, with included range scales, and does not include such working benefits as might be set up by any other city by way of holidays, vacations, other permitted absences of any type whatsoever, overtime, night or split shift, or pay for specialized services within a classification or rank, [922]or other premium pay differentials of any type whatsoever. The foregoing enumeration is not exclusive, but it is the intent of this section that nothing other than a basic amount of wages, with included range scales, is to be included within the meaning of ‘rates of compensation.’ ”

Under charter sections 8.401 and 8.407, the salaries of engineers and airport police are based upon generally prevailing wages for like service and working conditions in private employment or in certain other counties and communities within the San Francisco Bay Area. Charter section 8.407 further provides that the prevailing rates of wages “shall be defined as the rate ranges developed from the ... basic pay rates, excluding fringe benefits ----” (Italics added.) “Basic pay rate” is “defined as applying only to the basic rate of wages, with included range scales, and does not include any other benefits of employment or working condition benefits.”

In conducting their surveys on behalf of both classes of employees respondents do not consider retirement contributions to PERS made by the employer. Once a public agency contracts with PERS, two types of contributions are made to the retirement system: “normal” contributions, or those required to be paid by the employee (Gov. Code, § 20027), and those made by the employer (Gov. Code, § 20740 et seq.). The employer, on behalf of the employee, may also pay all or a part of the “normal” contributions (Gov. Code, § 20615), and some governmental entities do so. Appellants contend that the “normal” (employee) contributions paid by other governmental employers to PERS constitute a portion of the basic salary which must be taken into account by respondents in their salary surveys.