National Treasury Employees Union and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (Authority decision, January 30, 1991)

Final FLRA decision. This is a final order of the Federal Labor Relations Authority dismissing a negotiability appeal on remand. 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 National Treasury Employees Union proposed salary adjustments for Nuclear Regulatory Commission employees tied to recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Federal Pay. The Authority had ordered the agency to bargain over the proposal, but the Fourth Circuit vacated that decision and directed the Authority to dismiss the case as moot. The decision notes that a new federal pay law had abolished the advisory committee. Following the court's order, the Authority dismissed the union's negotiability petition without deciding the proposal's merits again.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Court remand in a negotiability appeal.
• Outcome: Union's petition for review dismissed as moot.
• Key point: The Authority followed the court's instruction to dismiss the pay proposal dispute after the underlying proposal became moot.

Full text (FLRA public release)

[ v39 p182 ]
39:0182(11)NG

The decision of the Authority follows:

39 FLRA No. 11

FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY

WASHINGTON, D.C.

NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION

(Union)

and

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

(Agency)

0-NG-1250

29 FLRA 217 (1987)

DECISION AND ORDER ON REMAND

January 30, 1991

Before Chairman McKee and Members Talkin and
Armendariz.

I. Statement of the Case

This negotiability case is before the Authority on remand from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. FLRA, No. 87-3182 (4th Cir. Dec. 20, 1990) (NRC). The court vacated the Authority's decision in National Treasury Employees Union and Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 29 FLRA 217 (1987) (NTEU) and remanded the case to the Authority with instructions to dismiss the case as moot. Accordingly, we will do so.

II. Background

In NTEU, the Authority directed the Agency to bargain over a proposal providing, as relevant here, that employees' salaries would be subject to adjustment equal to the adjustment recommended to the President by the Advisory Committee on Federal Pay. On a petition for review filed by the Agency, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the Authority's decision. Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. FLRA, 859 F.2d 302 (4th Cir. 1988). Subsequently, the Fourth Circuit, sitting en banc, vacated the panel's decision and denied enforcement of the Authority's bargaining order. Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. FLRA, 879 F.2d 1225 (4th Cir. 1989). On petitions for certiorari filed by the Authority and the Union, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the Court of Appeals' en banc decision and remanded the case to the Fourth Circuit. FLRA v. National Treasury Employees Union, 110 S. Ct. 2580 (1990); National Treasury Employees Union v. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 110 S. Ct. 2579 (1990). As noted previously, in NRC the Fourth Circuit, on remand from the Supreme Court, vacated the Authority's decision and remanded the case to the Authority with instructions to dismiss the case as moot.(*)

III. Analysis and Conclusions

Pursuant to the order of the court in NRC, the disputed proposal in NTEU is moot. Therefore, also pursuant to that order, the Union's petition for review will be dismissed.

IV. Order

The petition for review is dismissed as moot.

FOOTNOTES:
(If blank, the decision does not
have footnotes.)

*/ On November 5, 1990, the President signed into law the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990 (Act). Pub. L. No. 101-509, sec. 529 (1990). Among other things, the Act has the effect of abolishing entities that had previously been involved in the Federal pay-setting process, including the Advisory Committee on Federal Pay.