New York State Nurses Association and Veterans Administration Medical Center, Bronx, New York (Authority decision, March 10, 1983)

Final FLRA decision. The Authority resolved the union's negotiability petition. An aggrieved person may seek judicial review of this final order in an appropriate United States court of appeals within 60 days after issuance under 5 U.S.C. § 7123(a). A petition does not itself stay the order.

Plain-English summary

The nurses' union proposed limiting routine assignment of listed nonnursing tasks at the Bronx VA medical center, while allowing urgent exceptions. The Authority found that the proposal would restrict management's ability to assign those duties unless the exception applied. That directly interfered with the right to assign work. It dismissed the negotiability petition on the merits.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Management work assignment right under 5 U.S.C. § 7106(a)(2)(B).
• Outcome: Agency's nonnegotiability position sustained; petition dismissed.
• Key point: An urgent exception did not remove the proposal's routine assignment restriction.

Full text (FLRA public release)

[ v11 p578 ]
11:0578(94)NG

The decision of the Authority follows:

11 FLRA NO. 94

NEW YORK STATE NURSES
ASSOCIATION

Union

and

VETERANS ADMINISTRATION
MEDICAL CENTER, BRONX,
NEW YORK

Agency

Case No. 0-NG-433

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 issues relating to the negotiability of the following Union proposal. 1

NON-NURSING FUNCTIONS

It is recognized that in urgent or needful situations no absolute restrictions can be placed on nurses' duties in a patient care environment, however, the parties agree that the following duties are not ordinarily intended to (be) a normal part of an RN's duties: [ v11 p578 ]

a) mopping floors

b) cleaning and moving beds

c) emptying garbage

d) secretarial duties

e) patient escorting in cases not involving continued nursing observation

f) transporting of specimens; messenger work

Upon careful consideration of the entire record, including the parties' contentions, the Authority makes the following determination. The proposal expressly places restrictions on the Agency's ability to assign certain duties to nurses unless the circumstances described in the proposal exist. In this regard, the proposal is in all respects materially to the same effect as the first paragraph of the proposal held to directly interfere with management's right under section 7106(a)(2)(B) of the Statute to "assign work" in Association of Civilian Technicians and State of Georgia National Guard, 2 FLRA 581 (1980). Based on Georgia National Guard and the reasons stated therein, it is therefore concluded that the instant proposal is inconsistent with management's right to "assign work" and is outside the duty to bargain.

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

Issued, Washington, D.C., March 10, 1983

Ronald W. Haughton, Chairman

Henry B. Frazier III, Member

Leon B. Applewhaite, Member

FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY

[ v11 p579 ]

FOOTNOTES

Footnote 1 The Agency's motion to dismiss the
Union's petition for review for failure to request in writing an allegation of nonnegotiability is hereby denied. While the Union did not exercise its right to initiate the formal negotiability appeal process under section 2424.3 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations by requesting in writing that the Agency serve it with a responsive allegation, the Union could properly consider the unrequested written contentions of the Agency as an allegation for purposes of appeal to the Authority and file, as it did in this case, an appeal pursuant to section 2424.3, within the time limit prescribed by that provision. See, e.g., International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, Local 121 and Department of the Treasury, Bureau or Engraving and Printing, Washington, D.C., 10 FLRA No. 39 (1982).