12:0545(104)NG - AFGE Local 2578 and GSA, National Archives and Records Service -- 1983 FLRAdec NG

 12 FLRA No. 104
 
 AMERICAN FEDERATION OF
 GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES,
 LOCAL 2578, AFL-CIO
 Union
 
 and
 
 GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION,
 NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND
 RECORDS SERVICE
 Agency
 
                                            Case No. O-NG-640
 
                 DECISION AND ORDER ON NEGOTIABILITY ISSUE
 
    This petition for review comes before the Authority pursuant to
 section 7105(a)(2)(D) of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations
 Statute (the Statute) and presents issues relating to the negotiability
 of the following Union proposal which arose in the context ;  of
 negotiations relating to a reduction-in-force (RIF) conducted by the
 Agency:
 
          Trust Fund employees will have the same retreat and bumping
       rights of the competitive service.  /1/
 
 Upon careful consideration of the entire record, including the parties'
 contentions, the Authority makes the following determinations.  Contrary
 to the Agency's position, the Authority finds that the petition is
 neither moot nor procedurally defective.  Although service of a copy of
 the petition on the Agency head may have been defective initially, the
 Union later perfected service and, thus, cured the defect in accordance
 with established Authority practice.  See American Federation of
 Government Employees, AFL-CIO, Local 3804 and Federal Deposit Insurance
 Corporation, Chicago Region, Illinois, 5 FLRA No. 71 (1981).  Moreover,
 the Authority finds that the Agency's actions in unilaterally extending
 bumping and retreat rights to Trust Fund employees involved in the RIF
 neither resolved nor rendered moot the question of whether such matters
 are subject to bargaining.  /2/
 
    With respect to the merits of the negotiability issue, the Agency in
 its declaration of nonnegotiability asserted that the proposal conflicts
 with a higher level agency regulation