Patent and Trademark Office and Patent Office Professional Association (Authority decision, February 27, 1984)

Final FLRA decision. The Authority dismissed the agency's exceptions without reviewing the arbitration award. 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

The Patent and Trademark Office filed exceptions to an arbitrator's award more than 30 days after the award's date. The Authority found that the deadline ran from the original award, even though the arbitrator later issued a clarification. Its rules did not allow the filing period to be extended or waived. The Authority dismissed the exceptions as untimely without reviewing the award's merits.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Arbitration exception filing period under 5 U.S.C. § 7122(b).
• Outcome: Agency exceptions dismissed as untimely.
• Key point: A later clarification did not restart the deadline for objections to the original award.

Full text (FLRA public release)

[ v14 p61 ]

14:0061(13)AR

The decision of the Authority follows:

14 FLRA No. 13

PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
Activity

and

PATENT OFFICE PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION
Union

Case No. O-AR-707

ORDER DISMISSING EXCEPTIONS

This case is before the Authority on exceptions to the award of Arbitrator Jerome H. Ross filed by the Activity pursuant to section 7122(a) of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute and section 2425.1 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations. For the reasons stated below, it has been determined that the Activity's exceptions must be dismissed as untimely filed.

Under section 7122(b) of the Statute and section 2425.1 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations, the time limit for filing an exception to an arbitration award is 30 days beginning on and including the date of the award. Additionally, under section 2429.21 of the Rules and Regulations, any such exception must be received by the Authority before the close of business on the last day of the prescribed time limit.

The Arbitrator's award in this case, as included in the Activity's submission, is dated November 30, 1983. Therefore, under the Statute and the Authority's Rules and Regulations, the Activity's exceptions had to be filed, i.e., received in the national office of the Authority, no later than the close of business on December 29, 1983. /1/ However, the exceptions were not filed until January 20, 1984. In that regard, and as provided in section 2429.23(d) of the Rules and Regulations, the time limit for filing exceptions to an arbitration award may not be extended or waived by the authority.

Accordingly, as the Activity's exceptions were untimely filed, they are hereby dismissed.

For the Authority.

Issued, Washington, D.C., February 27, 1984
Harold D. Kessler, Director, Case
Management

--------------- FOOTNOTES$ ---------------

/1/ In this regard, the Activity asserts that the Arbitrator issued a clarification of his award on December 22, 1983. However, since the deficiencies in the award asserted by the Activity arose in the November 30 award, the filing period commenced on that date. See United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Eugene District Office and National Federation of Federal Employees, Local 1911, 6 FLRA 401, 403 n. 2(1981).