Commander, 554th Combat Support Group, Nellis Air Force Base and American Federation of Government Employees, Local 1199 (Authority decision, March 13, 1984)

Final FLRA decision. The Authority modified the arbitrator's award by removing its duty station bargaining requirement. Under 5 U.S.C. § 7123(a)(1), orders involving arbitral awards are generally excluded from judicial review unless they involve an unfair labor practice under 5 U.S.C. § 7116. This decision does not state that it involves one.

Plain-English summary

Nellis Air Force Base established a new duty station for 18 employees working at a flight training range. An arbitrator ordered the Air Force to bargain over that decision because it was closely linked to negotiable changes in work hours. The Authority held that deciding where to establish a duty station fell within management's statutory right to determine the agency's organization. It removed the paragraph of the award requiring bargaining over the duty station decision. The remaining portions of the award were not set aside in this decision.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Management's organizational right under 5 U.S.C. § 7106(a)(1) and arbitration review under § 7122(a).
• Outcome: Award modified by striking its first paragraph, which required bargaining over the duty station decision.
• Key point: The connection to negotiable work hours did not make the duty station decision itself bargainable.

Full text (FLRA public release)

[ v14 p63 ]

14:0063(14)AR

The decision of the Authority follows:

14 FLRA No. 14

COMMANDER, 554TH COMBAT
SUPPORT GROUP (TAC), NELLIS
AIR FORCE BASE, LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
Activity

and

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES, LOCAL 1199, AFL-CIO,
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE
Union

Case No. O-AR-424

DECISION

This matter is before the Authority on an exception to the award of Arbitrator Walter P. Coombs filed by the Agency under section 7122(a) of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute and part 2425 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations.

The parties in this case submitted to arbitration an issue of whether the Activity violated the collective bargaining agreement when it established a new duty station for 18 employees who perform maintenance at a flight-training range. After reviewing the decision of the Authority in American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, Local 3805 and Federal Home Loan Bank Board, Boston District Office, 5 FLRA 693(1981), the Arbitrator concluded that the substance of a decision concerning the establishment of a duty station, alone, was not subject to bargaining since it is a management right under section 7106(a)(1) of the Statute. However, because the Arbitrator determined that the decision to establish a new duty station was "so intertwined" with proposed changes relating to hours of work which were subject to negotiation, the Arbitrator held that the substance of the Activity's decision to establish a new duty station was consequently also subject to negotiation. Accordingly, he ruled in this regard that the Activity had violated the agreement by failing to negotiate over the decision to establish a new duty station and essentially ordered that decision to be the subject of negotiations unless the parties mutually agreed that the duty-station issue could be separated from the other matters.

In its exception the Agency contends that the award in this respect is contrary to section 7106(a) of the Statute. Specifically, the Agency argues on the basis of Federal Home Loan Bank Board, 5 FLRA at 694, that the award interferes with the right of management to establish official duty stations which right flows from the provisions of section 7106(a)(1) providing for management's right to determine the organization, i.e., the administrative or functional structure, of the agency. The Authority agrees.

The Authority has consistently held that the plain language of section 7106(a) provides that nothing in the Statute shall affect the authority of an agency to exercise the rights enumerated in that section, the intent being that such matters may not be negotiated under any circumstances. E.g., Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization and Federal Aviation Administration, 5 FLRA 763, 767 & n.4(1981). Thus, in terms of this case, the Arbitrator could not properly order the Activity, for any reason, to negotiate concerning the decision of the Activity to establish a new duty station. As indicated by the Authority in PATCO, an arbitrator may not properly condition the implementation of a management right under section 7106(a) of the Statute on a negotiated agreement between the parties of a dispute. Consequently, the Authority finds that the award is deficient to the extent that it subjects the Activity's decision to establish a new duty station to negotiation and must be modified. Accordingly, the award is modified by striking paragraph 1.

Issued, Washington, D.C., March 13, 1984
Barbara J. Mahone, Chairman
Ronald W. Haughton, Member
Henry B. Frazier III, Member
FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY