U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and American Federation of Government Employees, Local 476 (Authority decision, December 11, 1986)

Final FLRA decision. The Authority dismisses the union's exceptions to an arbitration award as untimely. Under 5 U.S.C. § 7123(a)(1), Authority orders involving arbitral awards are generally excluded from judicial review unless they involve an unfair labor practice. This decision does not state that it involves one.

Plain-English summary

AFGE Local 476 challenged an arbitrator's award in a dispute with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The award was dated September 24, 1986, and appeared to have been mailed to the parties that day. The union mailed its exceptions to an envelope addressed to the Authority but bearing the National Labor Relations Board's street address. The labor board received them on October 28, the deadline, and forwarded them to the Authority, which received them on October 30. The Authority dismissed the exceptions because they did not reach its national office by the filing deadline. The decision does not describe the underlying dispute or rule on the award's merits.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Arbitration exception deadline under 5 U.S.C. § 7122(b) and 5 C.F.R. § 2425.1.
• Outcome: Union's exceptions dismissed as untimely; arbitration award left undisturbed.
• Key point: Receipt by another agency on the deadline did not count as filing with the Authority.

Full text (FLRA public release)

[ v24 p428 ]

24:0428(44)AR

The decision of the Authority follows:

24 FLRA No. 44

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING
AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Agency

and

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES, AFL-CIO, LOCAL 476
Union

Case No. 0-AR-1259

ORDER DISMISSING EXCEPTIONS

This case is before the Authority on exceptions to the award of Arbitrator Jerome H. Ross filed by the Union pursuant to section 7122(a) of the Federal Service Labor-Management Regulations Statute and section 2425.1 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations. For the reason stated below, it has been determined that the exceptions must be dismissed as untimely filed.

The Arbitrator's award is dated September 24, 1986, and, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, appears to have been served on the parties by mail on the same day.

Under section 7122(b) of the Statute, as amended, /1/ and section 2425.1 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations, as amended, /2/ which amendments are applicable to exceptions pending or filed with the Authority on or after March 2, 1984, and under sections 2429.21 and 2429.22 of the Rules and Regulations, which are also applicable to computation of the time limit here involved, any exceptions to the Arbitrator's award in this case had to be filed, that is, received in the national office of the Authority not later than the close of business on October 28, 1986.

However, the exceptions were not filed with the Authority at its national office in Washington, D.C., until October 30, 1986. The Union sent the exceptions by regular mail from Takoma Park, Maryland on October 23, 1986. In this regard, the record establishes that while the Union identified the Authority as the addressee on the envelope containing the exceptions, the remainder of the address used on the envelope was that of the national office of the National Labor Relations Board. The Office of the Executive Secretary of the National Labor Relations Board received the exceptions on October 28, 1986, and then forwarded them to the national office of the Authority. The exceptions were not received by the Authority's national office until October 30, 1986, /3/ and, therefore, were untimely filed.

Accordingly, as the Union's exceptions were untimely filed, they are hereby dismissed.

For the Authority.

Issued, Washington, D.C., December 11, 1986.
/s/ Harold D. Kessler
Director of Case Management

--------------- FOOTNOTES$ ---------------

(1) Section 7122(b) of the Statute was amended by the Civil Service Miscellaneous Amendments Act of 1983 (Pub. L. No. 98-224, Section 4, 98 Stat. 47, 48 (1984) ) to provide that the 30-day period for filing exceptions to an arbitrator's award begins on the date the award is served on the filing party.

(2) 49 Fed. Reg. 22623 (1984).

(3) Since the Authority's inception in 1979, its Rules and Regulations have required that exceptions to an Arbitrator's award must be filed with the Authority at its national office in Washington, D.C.