AFGE Local 1738 and Veterans Administration Medical Center, Salisbury (Authority decision, September 30, 1985)

Final FLRA decision. This is a final order of the Federal Labor Relations Authority on a negotiability petition. An aggrieved person may seek judicial review by filing a petition in an appropriate United States court of appeals within 60 days after issuance under 5 U.S.C. § 7123(a). Filing a petition does not stay the Authority's order unless the court orders a stay under 5 U.S.C. § 7123(c).

Plain-English summary

The union proposed that the Salisbury VA Medical Center give employees at least 14 days' notice before changing established tours of duty, except in emergencies or with employee agreement. The Authority found that this fixed notice period could prevent the agency from changing a schedule when a government wide regulation required a change. It ruled that the proposal was outside the duty to bargain and dismissed the union's petition for review.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Bargaining duty under 5 U.S.C. § 7117(a)(1) and workweek scheduling under 5 C.F.R. § 610.121.
• Outcome: Proposal found outside the duty to bargain; petition dismissed.
• Key point: A fixed advance notice rule could conflict with the required revision of an employee's work schedule.

Full text (FLRA public release)

[ v20 p439 ]

20:0439(47)NG

The decision of the Authority follows:

20 FLRA No. 47

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES,
AFL-CIO, LOCAL 1738
Union

and

VETERANS ADMINISTRATION
MEDICAL CENTER,
SALISBURY, NORTH CAROLINA
Agency

Case No. 0-NG-1106

DECISION AND ORDER ON NEGOTIABILITY ISSUE

The petition for review in this case comes before the Authority pursuant to section 7105(a)(2)(E) of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (the Statute), and raises an issue concerning the negotiability of one Union proposal. Upon careful consideration of the entire record, including the parties' contentions, the Authority makes the following determination.

Union Proposal

Section 19(C). Except in emergencies, employees assigned to established tours of duty will not have their assignments changed without at least fourteen days advance notice, unless agreed to by the employee. Procedures for changes in shift assignments are covered in Article 34, Section 8 of this supplement.

This proposal, by its terms, would require the Agency to provide employees with two weeks advance notice before changing established tours of duty. In this regard, the disputed proposal herein is to the same effect as Union Provision 1 in American Federation of Government Employees, Local 1546 and Department of the Army, Sharpe Army Depot, Lathrop, California, 19 FLRA No. 118(1985), which also required the agency to provide employees with two weeks advance notice of changes in tours of duty and which the Authority found to be inconsistent with 5 CFR 610.121, an applicable Government-wide regulation. In that case the Authority, relying on its earlier decision in American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, Local 2484 and U.S. Army Garrison, Fort Detrick, Maryland, 17 FLRA No. 106(1985), petition for review filed sub nom. American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, Local 2848 v. FLRA, No. 85-1405 (D.C. Cir. July 3, 1985), found that the regulation obligated an agency head to revise an employee's administrative workweek to conform to the hours during which the employee will actually be required to work "(w)hen the head of the agency knows in advance of an administrative workweek" that a schedule revision is necessary. The Authority concluded in that case that the provisions would prevent the agency head from revising an employee's work schedule unless the need to change the schedule was apparent not less than two weeks prior to the rescheduling. Consequently, as the instant proposal would, in certain circumstances, also prevent the Agency from complying with a Government-wide regulation, it is, based on Sharpe Army Depot, and U.S. Army Garrison, Fort Detrick, outside the duty to bargain pursuant to section 7117(a)(1) of the Statute.

Accordingly, pursuant to section 2424.10 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations IT IS ORDERED that the petition for review be, and it hereby is, dismissed.

Issued, Washington, D.C., September 30, 1985 Henry B. Frazier III, Acting Chairman William J. McGinnis, Jr., Member FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY