American Federation of Government Employees, Local 3424 and Federal Home Loan Bank Board, San Francisco (Authority decision, March 16, 1984)

Final FLRA decision. The Authority dismissed the union's negotiability petition on both proposals. 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

AFGE Local 3424 proposed duty time for employees to travel home from temporary assignments on weekends and to return to their official duty stations during longer assignments. The Federal Home Loan Bank Board objected to the proposals. The Authority found that each would prevent the agency from assigning work during hours reserved for travel. It held the proposals outside the duty to bargain under management's right to assign work and dismissed the petition.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Management's right to assign work under 5 U.S.C. § 7106(a)(2)(B).
• Outcome: Both travel time proposals held outside the duty to bargain; petition dismissed.
• Key point: Required duty time for personal return travel would restrict work assignments.

Full text (FLRA public release)

[ v14 p79 ]

14:0079(18)NG

The decision of the Authority follows:

14 FLRA No. 18

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, AFL-CIO
LOCAL 3424
Union

and

FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANK BOARD
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
Agency

Case No. O-NG-719

DECISION AND ORDER ON NEGOTIABILITY ISSUES

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 relating to the negotiability of the following two Union proposals:

Union Proposal 1

Overhead for weekend travel from a temporary duty station to the employee's official residence during an assignment shall be based on the following:

When the cost of staying at his/her temporary duty station on weekends exceeds the cost of travel by his/her POV to his/her official residence and return, such employee will be entitled to overhead up to a maximum of three hours each way. However, travel by POV each way must be arranged so that one hour of travel is on the employee's own time.

Flight schedules must also be arranged so that one hour of travel is on the employee's own time.

Union Proposal 2

For each four (4) week period which a unit employee is in a continuing per diem status, and the per diem status will last another five (5) work days, the District Director will authorize the employee to return to the Official Duty Station at the end of the 4th week. The employee will travel to and from the Official Duty Station by the most expeditious means of transportation practicable.

Upon careful consideration of the entire record, including the parties' contentions, the Authority makes the following determinations. According to the Union's stated intent, Union Proposal 1 requires the Agency to grant employees a maximum of 3 hours of duty time for traveling, each way, when an employee on temporary duty assignment wishes to return to the employee's residence on the weekends and the cost of staying at the temporary duty assignment exceeds the cost of traveling. Thus, the express language of the proposal would preclude the assignment of work for a maximum of 6 hours to those employees who travel to their residence at the end of the workweek and return to their temporary duty assignment in the beginning of the workweek. In this regard, the proposal is substantively identical to Proposal 2 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), which precluded 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. In that case, the Authority relied upon its decision in National Treasury Employees Union and NTEU Chapter 80 and Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Central Region, 8 FLRA No. 38(1982) to find the proposal outside the duty to bargain since it removed management's discretion to assign work to employees under section 7106(a)(2)(B) of the Statute. Thus, for the reasons set forth in the Internal Revenue Service decision, the Authority finds that Union Proposal 1 in the present case is outside the duty to bargain because it directly interferes with the Agency's right to assign work under section 7106(a)(2)(B) of the Statute. /1/

With respect to Union Proposal 2, the Union's stated intent is to require the Agency to grant the amount of administrative travel time necessary to complete a round trip from the temporary duty assignment to the employee's residence by the most expeditious means of transportation practicable. Based upon the record, it appears administrative travel time would be within the basic workweek of 40 hours. /2/ Accordingly, the effect of Union Proposal 2 is to preclude the assignment of work during duty hours for those hours of travel.

Accordingly, pursuant to section 2424.10 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations, IT IS ORDERED that the petition for review as to Union Proposals 1 and 2 be, and it hereby is, dismissed. /3/

Issued, Washington, D.C., March 16, 1984
Barbara J. Mahone, Chairman
Ronald W. Haughton, Member
Henry B. Frazier III, Member
FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY

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

/1/ Of course, management must exercise its rights under section 7106(a)(2) in accordance with applicable laws. In this case, specifically, 5 U.S.C. 6101(b)(2) requires an agency to arrange travel during the scheduled workweek "to the maximum extent practicable." However, this proposal would require travel during the scheduled workweek even where not practicable and is thus inconsistent with management's right to assign work.

/2/ See also Title 5 CFR 610.

/3/ In view of the decision herein, it is unnecessary to address the Agency's additional contentions.