The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals told the FLRA it deserved deference in the interpretation of the federal labor law but exceeded its authority when it interpreted a law the Air Force was charged to administer.
Cheeks must still sting at FLRA after a hard slapping by the DC Circuit finding “the Authority endorsed an incoherent arbitral award and embraced an unreasonably narrow view of what the Master Agreement ‘covers.’ “
Recent articles in the media have indicated that federal employees are not represented by unions that negotiate wages. This is not true as there are agencies in which wages are determined through collective bargaining. Here are a few of these agencies and how the salaries in these agencies compare to the rest of the federal workforce.
The author discusses the potential harm a recent FLRA decision will do to collective bargaining.
Groucho Marx said “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.” In a recent arbitration appeal, the FLRA reversed itself over an issue involving an agreement made by political direction with the union in the waning days of the Clinton Administration. The current Chairman, a member when the original case was decided did not dissent then but now gives the union not only a second bite of the apple but, arguably, the whole bushel. Is it a holiday gift? You decide.
In what the author calls perhaps the wackiest decision in the history of Federal labor relations, the Federal Labor Relations Authority decides to allow the election of a union to represent the Transportation Security Administration’s Transportation Security Officers with no collective bargaining permitted. Also crazily, the unions involved, AFGE and NTEU, applaud the decision. Another case of political bone throwing in DC? You decide.
The author requested and received FLRA’s training materials used to train participants in pilot programs in which parties will bargain agency permissive topics. These pilots dramatically expand union bargaining rights. It’s unclear what authorizes union representatives’ official time for this training or authorizes FLRA to train the representatives of a non-governmental entity for free. You decide.
The author suggests agency advocates pay attention to a recent line of FLRA cases involving appeals of arbitration awards. The Authority has clearly decided to widely expand an arbitrator’s authority while severely limiting an agency’s ability to appeal an award. The FLRA has apparently decided to bypass the Congress and update the 1978 labor relations law against the agencies’ interests.
In a case Fedsmith has been covering since 2007, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the Federal Labor Relations Authority’s efforts to impose its will on the National Labor Relations Board. In what some might call a slam dunk, the court decided the FLRA once again misinterpreted another Agency’s enabling legislation.
Over the course of her term as minority member of the FLRA, now Chairman Pope dissented many times in FLRA decisions. The author identifies those that specifically addressed negotiability issues and asks, can we expect a reversal if the issues come up again?
