FLRA

FLRA has a new website and, according to its Chairman, a new “season” based on “Revitalization, Reinvention, and Re-engagement”. Her message is the keynote on the cosmetically altered site. Taking on the prior Authority (of which she was a member) claiming it’s “performance, along with employee morale, had suffered” and sounding a lot like Al Gore, she wants to reinvent the FLRA but how she plans to do so is a bit hazy.

On remand from a court decision, FLRA was instructed to revisit a record. In a decision blaming the Agency for not rebutting the Union’s lousy evidence, FLRA relies on unsupported emails to decide the case. The author suggests that this case offers the parties an opportunity to dramatically affect future negotiability proceedings.

The exact origins of the current “Covered By” Doctrine are somewhat shrouded in the fog of early 1990s case law. Now that this doctrine has been fleshed out by subsequent FLRA and Court decisions, the author asks if it’s time for agency management to look at and, perhaps, take advantage of the opportunities the case law offers.