Fort Knox Teachers Association and Fort Knox Dependents Schools (Authority decision, April 10, 1985)

Final FLRA decision. This is a final order of the Federal Labor Relations Authority in a negotiability case. 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 Fort Knox Teachers Association grieved homeroom assignments, and the schools denied the grievance on the ground that the assignments were management rights outside the contract's grievance and arbitration process. The association filed a negotiability petition with the Authority. The Authority held that this dispute arose during a grievance rather than collective bargaining, so the negotiability appeal procedure did not apply. It dismissed the petition, leaving the dispute to the parties' negotiated grievance procedure.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Negotiability review under 5 U.S.C. § 7117.
• Outcome: Petition for review dismissed.
• Key point: A dispute over whether an existing grievance may proceed belongs in the grievance process, not a negotiability appeal arising from bargaining.

Full text (FLRA public release)

[ v17 p433 ]

17:0433(70)NG

The decision of the Authority follows:

17 FLRA No. 70

FORT KNOX TEACHERS ASSOCIATION
Union

and

FORT KNOX DEPENDENTS SCHOOLS
Activity

Case No. 0-NG-919

ORDER DISMISSING PETITION FOR REVIEW

This case is before the Authority pursuant to section 7105(a)(2)(E) of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute on a petition for review of a negotiability issue filed by the Union. For the reasons stated below, the Union's petition must be dismissed.

The record before the Authority in this case indicates that the negotiability dispute arose when the Activity denied a Union grievance concerning homeroom assignments on the ground that such assignments were nonnegotiable management rights and therefore not grievable or arbitrable under the parties' negotiated agreement. In response to the Activity's denial of the grievance, the Union filed the instant negotiability appeal.

Under section 7117 of the Statute and section 2424.1 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations, a union properly may file a negotiability appeal where the union and an agency are involved in collective bargaining and the agency alleges that the duty to bargain does not extend to any matter proposed to be bargained.

In this case, as indicated above, the dispute arose in the context of a grievance proceeding and not in the course of collective bargaining between the parties. Such disputes are properly resolved under the grievance procedures provided by the parties in a collective bargaining agreement. See, e.g., Louis A. Johnson Veterans Administration Medical Center, Clarksburg, West Virginia and American Federation of Government Employees, Local 2384, 15 FLRA No. 74 (1984). Consequently, the Union's petition does not meet the conditions for review of a negotiability issue under the Statute and the Authority's Rules and Regulations.

Accordingly, and apart from other considerations, the Union's petition for review is hereby dismissed. For the Authority Issued, Washington, D.C., April 10, 1985 Harold D. Kessler Managing Director for Case Processing