American Federation of Government Employees, Local 916 and Department of the Air Force, Tinker Air Force Base (Authority decision, December 24, 1986)

Final FLRA decision. The Authority dismisses the union's exceptions to an arbitration award because they were filed after the applicable deadline. Section 7123(a)(1) excludes Authority orders involving arbitration awards from its ordinary 60-day judicial-review provision unless the order involves an unfair labor practice under § 7118; this decision does not decide one.

Plain-English summary

AFGE Local 916 filed exceptions to an arbitration award involving Tinker Air Force Base. The award was dated September 24, 1986 and appeared to have been mailed that day. Under the applicable filing rules, the exceptions were due October 28. The union filed them November 5, so the Authority dismissed them without reaching their merits.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Arbitration exceptions deadline under 5 U.S.C. § 7122(b) and 5 C.F.R. § 2425.1.
• Outcome: Exceptions dismissed as untimely.
• Key point: Exceptions filed after the deadline were dismissed without review of the award.

Full text (FLRA public release)

[ v24 p840 ]

24:0840(80)AR

The decision of the Authority follows:

24 FLRA No. 80

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES, LOCAL 916
Union

and

DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE,
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE,
OKLAHOMA
Agency

Case No. 0-AR-1264

ORDER DISMISSING EXCEPTIONS

This case is before the Authority on exceptions to the award of Arbitrator Jay C. Fogelberg filed by the Union pursuant to section 7122(a) of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute and section 2425.1 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations. For the reasons 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 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 with the Authority no later than the close of business on October 28, 1986. However, the exceptions were not filed until November 5, 1986. Therefore, the exceptions were untimely filed.

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

For the Authority.

Issued, Washington, D.C., December 24, 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).