American Federation of Government Employees, Local 236 and General Services Administration, National Archives and Records Service (Authority decision, May 9, 1984)

Final FLRA decision. The Authority dismissed the union's 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

AFGE Local 236 proposed that summer workers relieve other employees of night duty and that requests for a change of hours be granted by seniority. The National Archives and Records Service argued that this could require assigning more employees to an early shift and hiring additional temporary workers for nights. The Authority agreed that the proposal determined the number of employees assigned to a tour of duty. Bargaining on that subject was optional for the agency under the statute, and the agency declined. The Authority dismissed the petition.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Staffing of tours of duty under 5 U.S.C. § 7106(b)(1).
• Outcome: Union petition dismissed; proposal outside the duty to bargain.
• Key point: The proposal would determine shift staffing, a subject the agency could choose whether to bargain.

Full text (FLRA public release)

[ v14 p461 ]

14:0461(76)NG

The decision of the Authority follows:

14 FLRA No. 76

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES, LOCAL 236
Union

and

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION,
NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS SERVICE
Agency

Case No. O-NG-706

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 presents issues concerning the negotiability of the following Union proposal.

Union proposes that non-full time employees be relieved also by summer workers of night duty, that agency honor requests from them for change of hours in order of priority based on seniority.

Upon careful consideration of the entire record, including the parties' contentions, the Authority makes the following determinations. According to the Agency, three non-full time bargaining unit employees are currently assigned to night shifts and no intermittent/temporary employees, or "summer workers," are assigned to the early shift. Thus, according to the Agency's uncontroverted interpretation of the proposal, should a non-full time employee from a late shift request a reassignment to the early shift, management would be obligated to accede to that request. As a result, as stated by the Agency, "the proposal would necessarily cause the Agency to assign more employees to the early shift than management finds necessary, and to hire additional temporary employees to work the 'night' shifts." Hence, in agreement with the Agency, and apart from other considerations raised by the Agency, the Authority concludes that the proposal is directly related to, and therefore determinative of, the number of employees assigned to a tour of duty and falls within the scope of section 7106(b)(1) of the Statute.
/1/ Because section 7106(b)(1), states that proposals which fall within its scope are negotiable only at the election of the agency, and the Agency herein has elected not to bargain on the proposal, the Union's proposal is not within the duty to bargain.

Accordingly, pursuant to section 2424.10 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations, IT IS ORDERED that the Union's petition for review be, and it hereby is, dismissed. Issued, Washington, D.C., May 9, 1984 Barbara J. Mahone, Chairman Ronald W. Haughton, Member Henry B. Frazier III, Member FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY

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/1/ See American Federation of Government Employees, Local 3669, AFL-CIO and Veterans Administration Medical Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2 FLRA 641 (1980).