United States Department of Defense, Pentagon Force Protection Agency (Agency) and American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO (Labor Organization/Petitioner) (Authority decision, January 28, 2015)

Final FLRA representation decision. This notice states that a regional director's decision and order became the Authority's action under 5 U.S.C. § 7105(f) and that the Authority will take no further action on this review request. The notice does not itself certify an election result. It does not present a judicial-review period as running from this notice; an order involving an appropriate-unit determination under 5 U.S.C. § 7112 falls within the review exclusion in 5 U.S.C. § 7123(a)(2).

Plain-English summary

An application for Authority review was filed in a representation case involving the Pentagon Force Protection Agency and AFGE while the Authority lacked a quorum. The Authority later regained a quorum but did not undertake to grant review within the statutory 60-day period. It concluded that the regional director's decision and order had therefore become the Authority's action. The Authority notified the parties that it would take no further action on the application. This short notice does not explain the regional director's underlying ruling.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: 5 U.S.C. § 7105(f); 5 U.S.C. § 7123(a)(2)
• Outcome: No further Authority action on the application for review; the regional director's order became the Authority's action.
• Key point: The Authority's failure to undertake review within 60 days of regaining a quorum left the regional director's order in place.

Full text (FLRA public release)

68 FLRA No. 42

UNITED STATES

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
PENTAGON FORCE PROTECTION AGENCY
(Agency)

and

AMERICAN FEDERATION

OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES

AFL-CIO
(Labor Organization/Petitioner)

WA-RP-12-0005

_____

NOTICE

January 28, 2015

______

Before the Authority: Carol Waller Pope, Chairman, and

Ernest DuBester and Patrick Pizzella, Members

In FDIC,[1] the Authority held that, under § 7105(f) of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute,[2] the Authority had sixty days from the date on which it regained its quorum – November 12, 2013 – to undertake to grant an application for review that had been filed while the Authority lacked a quorum.[3] The Authority further held that, because it had not undertaken to grant review within that sixty-day period, the regional director’s decision and order in that case became “the action of the Authority” after January 11, 2014.[4]

The application for review in this case also was filed when the Authority lacked a quorum. For the same reasons set forth in FDIC, because the Authority did not undertake to grant review of the application by January 11, 2014, the Regional Director’s decision and order in this case became the action of the Authority after that date. Accordingly, consistent with FDIC, we hereby notify the parties that the Authority is taking no further action in this case.

[1] 68 FLRA 260 (2015).

[2] 5 U.S.C. § 7105(f).

[3] FDIC, 68 FLRA at 260.

[4] Id. at 262 (internal quotation marks omitted).