National Association of Government Employees, Local R-12-33, National Federation of Federal Employees, Local 1374 and Pacific Missile Test Center (Authority decision, April 20, 1984)

Final FLRA decision. The Authority dismissed the unions' negotiability petition. An aggrieved person may seek judicial review of a final Authority order in an appropriate United States court of appeals within 60 days after issuance under 5 U.S.C. § 7123(a).

Plain-English summary

Two unions proposed counting employee check-in and travel by aircraft or boat to offshore duty stations as hours of work. The Authority read the proposal as requiring the Pacific Missile Test Center to use part of the regular workday for waiting and travel, leaving less time for other assignments. It held that this would restrict management's right to assign work and dismissed the petition. The decision did not resolve the agency's other objections to the proposal.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Management's right to assign work under 5 U.S.C. § 7106(a)(2)(B).
• Outcome: Union petition dismissed; proposal outside the duty to bargain.
• Key point: The proposal would prevent management from assigning other work during part of the regular duty day.

Full text (FLRA public release)

[ v14 p275 ]

14:0275(50)NG

The decision of the Authority follows:

14 FLRA No. 50

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, LOCAL
R-12-33 AND NATIONAL
FEDERATION OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES,
LOCAL 1374
Union

and

PACIFIC MISSILE TEST
CENTER, POINT MUGU,
CALIFORNIA
Agency

Case No. O-NG-578

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 the question of the negotiability of the following Union proposal.

Check-in and flight or boat underway time shall be hours of work for permanently stationed San Nicholas Island and Santa Cruz Island employees.

Upon careful consideration of the entire record, including the parties' contentions, the Authority makes the following determinations.

Based on the record, San Nicholas Island and Santa Cruz Island are offshore islands which are the official duty stations for the employees involved herein. The Union claims without contradiction that employees are ordered to be on the Agency's premises (Pacific Missile Test Center and Construction Battalion Center Port Hueneme) and remain at or within the confines of the station for the purpose of being transported to the offshore islands. /1/

Based on the language of the proposal and the Union's statements in the record, the proposal would require the Agency to shorten the duty period, i.e., the traveling and waiting time would be considered hours worked on regular workdays during normal working hours with the result that other assigned duties would have to be performed during fewer hours in the workday. /2/ In this connection, Proposal 7 in National Employees Union and NTEU Chapter 80 and Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Central Region, 8 FLRA No. 38 (1982) which would have required management to assign specified types of work at specific times to bargaining unit employees and would have precluded the assignment of other work at those times was held to violate management's right "to assign work" under section 7106(a)(2)(B). /3/ Additionally, in American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, Local 3483 and Federal Home Loan Bank Board, New York District Office, 13 FLRA No. 80 (1983), the Authority held that Proposal 2, which would have the effect of precluding the assignment of bank examination duties during hours at the beginning and end of the workday to those employees whose commute between residence and workplace exceeded one hour each way, was outside the duty to bargain because it violated management's right to assign work. In the present case, as already stated, management would be required to assign employees to wait either on the Agency's onshore or offshore premises and to travel to and from the offshore islands, which duties would be "performed" at the beginning and at the end of the regular workday. Consequently, management would be precluded from assigning other types of work at those times of the workday. Thus, this proposal is to the same effect as Proposal 7 in Internal Revenue Service, Central Region and Proposal 2 in Federal Home Loan Bank Board, and for the reasons stated in those cases, the Authority finds the proposal in dispute herein violates management's right to assign work under section 7106(a)(2)(B) and is outside the duty to bargain. See also Proposal I in International Association of Fire Fighters, Local F-48, AFL-CIO and Naval Support Activity, Mare Island Station, California, 3 FLRA 489 (1980).

Accordingly, pursuant to section 2424.10 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations, IT IS ORDERED that the petition for review as to the Union's proposal be, and it hereby is, dismissed. /4/

Issued, Washington, D.C., April 20, 1984

Barbara J. Mahone, Chairman
Ronald W. Haughton, Member
Henry B. Frazier III, Member
FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY

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

/1/ Union Reply Brief at 4.

/2/ Union Reply Brief at 2.

/3/ Section 7106(a)(2)(B) provides:

Sec. 7106. Management rights

(a) Subject to subsection (b) of this section, nothing in this chapter shall affect the authority of any management official of any agency--

. . . .

(2) in accordance with applicable laws--

. . . .

(B) to assign work, to make determinations with respect to contracting out, and to determine the personnel by which agency operations shall be conducted(.)

/4/ Based upon the Authority's conclusion that the proposal is outside the duty to bargain under section 7106(a)(2)(B), it is unnecessary to consider other Agency contentions concerning the negotiability of the proposal.