American Federation of Government Employees, Local 32 and Office of Personnel Management (Authority decision, April 20, 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 32 proposed that every grievance filed by the Office of Personnel Management be signed by OPM's director. The Authority found that this would assign a specific duty to the director and prevent management from giving that task to someone else. It held the proposal outside the duty to bargain because it interfered with management's right to assign work. The Authority dismissed the union's petition.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Management's right to assign work under 5 U.S.C. § 7106(a)(2)(B).
• Outcome: Union petition dismissed; proposal nonnegotiable.
• Key point: The union could not require one particular official to sign every agency grievance.

Full text (FLRA public release)

[ v14 p278 ]

14:0278(51)NG

The decision of the Authority follows:

14 FLRA No. 51

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES, AFL-CIO, LOCAL 32
Union

and

OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
Agency

Case No. O-NG-908

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 an issue relating to the negotiability of the following union proposal.

Any grievance filed by the agency must be signed by the Director of OPM.

Upon careful consideration of the entire record, including the parties' contentions, the Authority makes the following determination. The disputed proposal, by requiring that all grievances filed by the Agency must be signed by the Agency's director, prescribes a specific duty which the director would perform under certain circumstances. In this regard, the proposal is to the same effect as the Union's Proposal in National Federation of Federal Employees, Local 78 and Veterans Administration Regional Office, Indianapolis, Indiana, 9 FLRA 819 (1982), which prescribed specific duties which particular nonbargaining personnel in the agency would perform. The Authority therein, found the proposal outside the duty to bargain since it would directly interfere with management's right to assign work under section 7106(a)(2)(B) of the Statute by eliminating the discretion inherent in that right. /1/ Contrary to the Union's argument herein, the instant proposal would effectively preclude management from assigning the duty of signing grievances to other employees, thereby eliminating the discretion inherent in management's right to assign work. Hence, based on Veterans Administration Regional Office and the case cited therein, the proposal herein is likewise outside the duty to bargain. /2/

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., April 20, 1984 Barbara J. Mahone, Chairman Ronald W. Haughton, Member Henry B. Frazier III, Member FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY

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

/1/ Section 7106(a)(2)(B) provides as follows:

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(.)

/2/ Based on the decision herein, the Authority finds it unnecessary to address the Agency's additional argument as to the nonnegotiability of the proposal.