American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 2477 and Library of Congress (Authority decision, February 27, 1984)

Final FLRA decision. The Authority ordered the agency to bargain on the union's proposal. Under 5 U.S.C. § 7123(a), a person aggrieved by a final Authority order may generally seek judicial review within 60 days of issuance. A review petition does not itself stay the order.

Plain-English summary

AFSCME Local 2477 proposed a rotating schedule of two consecutive days off for certain Library of Congress employees. The Library said the proposal interfered with its management rights to assign employees and work and to determine staffing. It supplied no supporting argument or statement of position. The Authority found no demonstrated connection between the schedule proposal and the asserted management rights. It held the proposal within the duty to bargain and ordered bargaining on request.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Negotiability appeal under 5 U.S.C. § 7105(a)(2)(E) and asserted management rights under § 7106.
• Outcome: Proposal held negotiable; Library ordered to bargain on request.
• Key point: An unsupported management-rights claim did not remove the rotating days off proposal from bargaining.

Full text (FLRA public release)

[ v14 p59 ]

14:0059(12)NG

The decision of the Authority follows:

14 FLRA No. 12

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE,
COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES
LOCAL 2477
Union

and

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Agency

Case No. O-NG-584

DECISION AND ORDER ON NEGOTIABILITY ISSUE

The petition for review in this case comes before the Federal Labor Relations Authority (the Authority) pursuant to section 7105(a)(2)(E) of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (the Statute) and presents issues concerning the negotiability of one Union proposal.

Rotating days off will consist of Monday-Tuesday, Wednesday-Thursday, Friday-Saturday, Saturday-Sunday.

Upon careful consideration of the entire record, including the parties' contentions, the Authority makes the following determination.
/1/ The Agency alleged in its determination without any supporting argument that the proposal is inconsistent with its right to "assign" employees pursuant to section 7106(a)(2)(A) of the Statute, its right "to assign work" pursuant to section 7106(a)(2)(B) of the Statute and its right to determine the "numbers, types and grades of employees or positions assigned to any organizational subdivision" pursuant to section 7106(b)(1) of the Statute. However, as there is no demonstration whatsoever in the record, and none is apparent to the Authority, of any relationship between this proposal to rotate days off for certain employees of the Agency and the management rights alluded to by the Agency, the proposal is within the Agency's duty to bargain under the Statute. See National Federation of Federal Employees, Local 1167 v. Federal Labor Relations Authority 681 F.2d 886, at 891 (D.C. Cir. 1982), aff'g National Federation of Federal Employees, Local 1167 and Department of the Air Force, Headquarters, 31st Combat Support Group (TAC), Homestead Air Force Base, Florida, 6 FLRA 574(1981).

Accordingly, pursuant to section 2424.10 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations, IT IS ORDERED that the Agency shall upon request (or as otherwise agreed to by the parties) bargain concerning the disputed proposal. /2/

Issued, Washington, D.C., February 27, 1984
Barbara J. Mahone, Chairman
Ronald W. Haughton, Member
Henry B. Frazier III, Member
FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY

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

/1/ The Agency filed no statement of position as required by section 2424.6 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations.

/2/ In deciding that the disputed proposal is within the duty to bargain, the Authority makes no judgment as to its merits.