Veterans Administration Medical Center and American Federation of Government Employees, Local 1012 (Authority decision, October 29, 1987)

Final FLRA decision. The Authority denies the union's exception to an arbitration award sustaining a four-hour absence without leave charge. Under 5 U.S.C. § 7123(a)(1), an order involving an arbitral award is generally excluded from judicial review unless it involves an unfair labor practice under 5 U.S.C. § 7116. This decision does not decide an unfair labor practice.

Plain-English summary

A Veterans Administration Medical Center charged an employee with four hours of absence without leave after she missed a scheduled shift. An arbitrator denied the grievance because she had not contacted her immediate supervisor to obtain emergency annual leave. AFGE Local 1012 argued that treating the absence as unauthorized was arbitrary and capricious. The Authority found that the union had shown no legal or other recognized defect in the award and denied its exception. The absence charge remained in place.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Arbitration exception under 5 U.S.C. § 7122(a).
• Outcome: Union's exception denied; four-hour absence without leave charge remained upheld.
• Key point: A challenge to the arbitrator's conclusion about the leave request did not establish a ground for setting aside the award.

Full text (FLRA public release)

[ v29 p1229 ]
29:1229(94)AR

The decision of the Authority follows:

29 FLRA NO. 94

VETERANS ADMINISTRATION
MEDICAL CENTER

Activity

and

LOCAL 1012, AFGE

Union

Case No. 0-AR-1422

DECISION

I. Statement of the Case

This matter is before the Authority on an exception to the award of Arbitrator Stephen Barasch filed by the Union under section 7122(a) of the Federal Service Labor - Management Relations Statute (the Statute) and part 2425 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations. We deny the exception.

II. Background and Arbitrator's Award

The grievant was charged with 4 hours of absence without leave (AWOL) for failing to report for her scheduled 4-hour shift on the day in dispute. A grievance was filed and submitted to arbitration on the issue of whether the AWOL charge violated the parties' collective bargaining agreement. The Arbitrator denied the grievance. He found that the grievant had not complied with the requirement that she contact her immediate supervisor to obtain emergency annual leave. Accordingly, he ruled that the Union had not established that the Activity improperly classified the grievant as AWOL.

III. Discussion

In its exception the Union contends that the award is deficient because it sustains the Activity's action of classifying the grievant as AWOL rather than granting her emergency annual leave, which action was arbitrary and capricious.

We conclude that the Union has failed to establish that the Arbitrator's award is deficient on any of the grounds set forth in section 7122(a) of the Statute: specifically, that the award is contrary to any law, rule, or regulation or that the award is deficient on other grounds similar to those applied by Federal courts in private sector labor relations cases. See, for example, American Federation of Government Employees, Local 2206 and Department of Health and Human Services, Social Security Administration, Southeastern Program Service Center, 6 FLRA 568 (1981) (exceptions disputing an award sustaining an AWOL charge were denied as constituting nothing more than disagreement with the arbitrator's findings of fact and his reasoning and conclusions and an attempt to relitigate the merits of the grievance before the Authority).

Accordingly, the Union's exception is denied.

Issued, Washington, D.C., October 29,1987.

Jerry L. Calhoun, Chairman

Henry B. Frazier III, Member

Jean McKee, Member

FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY