AFGE Local 32 and Office of Personnel Management (Authority decision, May 22, 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

AFGE Local 32 proposed giving employees flexibility over a new work control system and desk organization if their supervisors approved alternate plans. The Authority read the proposal as assigning approval of changes in how employees perform their duties to a specific supervisor. That would prevent management from assigning the function to other agency personnel. The Authority found the proposal interfered with management's right to assign work and dismissed the petition.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Management's right to assign work under 5 U.S.C. § 7106(a)(2)(B).
• Outcome: Work control and desk organization proposal outside the duty to bargain.
• Key point: The proposal specified who had to approve changes in how employees performed assigned work.

Full text (FLRA public release)

[ v18 p91 ]

18:0091(17)NG

The decision of the Authority follows:

18 FLRA No. 17

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES, AFL-CIO, LOCAL 32
Union

and

OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
Agency

Case No. 0-NG-961

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.

Employees will be allowed some flexibility in establishing the new work control system and desk organization as long as it is O.K.'d by their supervisor. Any such approval of alternate plans will be noted and signed on the employee's copy of the training memo.

While not explained by the parties, the terms "work control system" and "desk organization" referred to in the proposal appear to concern the manner in which employees perform their assigned duties. Thus, this proposal provides that proposed changes in the manner in which employees perform their assigned duties would be subject to approval by a designated individual, specifically, the employee's supervisor. In this regard, this proposal is to the same effect as the third sentence of Union Proposal 2 in American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, Local 1858 and Department of the Army, U.S. Army Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, 10 FLRA 440 (1982). In Redstone Arsenal, the Authority relied upon Congressional Research Employees Association and the Library of Congress, 3 FLRA 737 (1980) (Section 8 of the Union's Proposal) to find the third sentence of the proposal which specified the personnel within an agency who would perform certain functions, including assigning work to bargaining unit employees, to be nonnegotiable. The Authority reasoned that such portion of the proposal implicitly prevented management from assigning those functions to other agency personnel and thus directly interfered with the right to assign work under section 7106(a)(2)(B) of the Statute. Similarly, the instant proposal, which requires that specified personnel, i.e., an employee's supervisor will approve changes in the manner in which employees perform their assigned duties, also directly interferes with management's right to assign work and is outside the duty to bargain. See National Federation of Federal Employees, Local 943 and Department of the Air Force, Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, 16 FLRA No. 49 (1984) (Section D of the Union's Proposal).

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., May 22, 1985 Henry B. Frazier III, Acting Chairman William J. McGinnis, Jr., Member FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY