FLRA’s “Comprehensive Arbitration Training”

The Federal Labor Relations Authority conducted training on Federal sector arbitration last month. If you missed it and want copies of the slides and handouts, the Author provides them and a comment.

The FLRA recently revised its arbitration appeal regulations and even more recently dropped a bombshell on Agency practitioners by expanding arbitrator authority.

Perhaps to soften the blow, the authority offered training on Federal sector arbitration. The class is composed of nine segments as follows:

  • Segment 1: Introduction to Federal-Sector Arbitration & The Negotiated Grievance Procedure 
  • Segment 2: Introduction to Federal-Sector Arbitration & The Negotiated Grievance Procedure 
  • Segment 3: Filing Exceptions with the FLRA & The FLRA’s New Arbitration Regulations
  • Segment 4: Grounds for Reviewing Arbitration Awards (Overview & Private-Sector Grounds)
  • Segment 5: Management Rights (5 U.S.C. § 7106)
  • Segment 6: Arbitral Enforcement of, & Consistency of Awards with, Regulations
  • Segment 7: Arbitral Remedies & Backpay
  • Segment 8: Attorney Fees
  • Segment 9: Judicial Review of Authority Decisions

Here’s a link to the slides and to the exercises used in the training.

I know I rarely say nice things about the FLRA, but they did a nice job putting this together. It probably would have been better if they had taken an extra day and included as trainers an arbitrator with Federal sector experience and experienced union and Agency arbitration advocates but as those who read these articles know, it is not their way to consider an outside opinion.

If you construe any of the above as an opinion, its all mine.

About the Author

Bob Gilson is a consultant with a specialty in working with and training Federal agencies to resolve employee problems at all levels. A retired agency labor and employee relations director, Bob has authored or co-authored a number of books dealing with Federal issues and also conducts training seminars.