American Federation of Government Employees Local 916 and Tinker Air Force Base (Authority decision, August 28, 1984)

Final FLRA decision. The Authority dismisses exceptions to an arbitration award for failure to complete the filing. Under 5 U.S.C. § 7123(a)(1), ordinary judicial review is generally unavailable for an order concerning an arbitration award unless it involves an unfair labor practice under § 7116; this decision does not decide one.

Plain-English summary

AFGE Local 916 filed exceptions to an arbitration award involving Tinker Air Force Base but did not include a legible copy of the award. The Authority told the union what it needed to submit, gave it time to correct the filing, and warned that failure could lead to dismissal. The union submitted nothing by the deadline. The Authority dismissed the exceptions for failure to comply with its filing rules, without reaching the merits.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Arbitration exceptions under 5 U.S.C. § 7122(a) and Authority filing rules.
• Outcome: Union exceptions dismissed for an incomplete filing.
• Key point: A party had to supply the arbitrator's award to complete an exceptions filing after notice of the deficiency.

Full text (FLRA public release)

[ v15 p684 ]

15:0684(136)AR

The decision of the Authority follows:

15 FLRA No. 136

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES, LOCAL 916
UNION

and

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, OKLAHOMA
Activity

Case No. O-AR-753

ORDER DISMISSING EXCEPTIONS

This matter is before the Authority on exceptions to the award of Arbitrator Elvis C. Stephens filed by the Union 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 Union's exceptions must be dismissed.

By Authority letter of June 13, 1984, the Union was informed that preliminary examination of its exceptions disclosed an apparent deficiency in meeting the requirements of the Authority's Regulations. Specifically, as was noted in the Authority's letter, the Union failed to comply with section 2425.2(d) which requires that a legible copy of the award of the arbitrator and legible copies of other pertinent documents be included with the exceptions.

The Union was also advised that further processing of the appeal was contingent upon compliance with this provision of the Authority's Regulations. In this regard, the Union was informed of the specific action that had to be taken to comply and complete the appeal, and was afforded time in which to submit a copy of the Arbitrator's award. Finally, the Union was advised that failure to comply with this requirement within the time limit provided could result in dismissal of the exceptions. The Union has made no submission within the time period provided.

Thus, since the Union failed to properly complete its exceptions in conformity with the Authority's Regulations, the Union's exceptions are hereby dismissed for failure to comply with the Authority's Regulations.

For the Authority.

Issued, Washington, D.C. August 28, 1984
Jan K. Bohren
Executive Director/Administrator