14:0275(50)NG - NAGE Local R-12-33 and NFFE Local 1374 and Pacific Missile Test Center, Point Mugu, CA -- 1984 FLRAdec NG

 14 FLRA No. 50
 
 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
 GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, LOCAL
 R-12-33 AND NATIONAL
 FEDERATION OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES,
 LOCAL 1374
 Union
 
 and
 
 PACIFIC MISSILE TEST
 CENTER, POINT MUGU,
 CALIFORNIA
 Agency
 
                                          Case No. O-NG-578
 
                 DECISION AND ORDER ON NEGOTIABILITY ISSUE
 
    The petition for review in this case comes before the Authority
 pursuant to section 7105(a)(2)(E) of the Federal Service
 Labor-Management Relations Statute (the Statute) and raises the question
 of the negotiability of the following Union proposal.
 
          Check-in and flight or boat underway time shall be hours of
       work for permanently stationed San Nicholas Island and Santa Cruz
       Island employees.
 
    Upon careful consideration of the entire record, including the
 parties' contentions, the Authority makes the following determinations.
 
    Based on the record, San Nicholas Island and Santa Cruz Island are
 offshore islands which are the official duty stations for the employees
 involved herein.  The Union claims without contradiction that employees
 are ordered to be on the Agency's premises (Pacific Missile Test Center
 and Construction Battalion Center Port Hueneme) and remain at or within
 the confines of the station for the purpose of being transported to the
 offshore islands.  /1/
 
    Based on the language of the proposal and the Union's statements in
 the record, the proposal would require the Agency to shorten the duty
 period, i.e., the traveling and waiting time would be considered hours
 worked on regular workdays during normal working hours with the result
 that other assigned duties would have to be performed during fewer hours
 in the workday.  /2/ In this connection, Proposal 7 in National
 Employees Union and NTEU Chapter 80 and Department of the Treasury,
 Internal Revenue Service, Central Region, 8 FLRA No. 38 (1982) which
 would have required management to assign specified types of work at
 specific times to bargaining unit employees and would have precluded the
 assignment of other work at those times was held to violate management's
 right "to assign work" under section 7106(a)(2)(B).  /3/ Additionally,
 in American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, Local 3483 and
 Federal Home Loan Bank Board, New York District Office, 13 FLRA No. 80
 (1983), the Authority held that Proposal 2, which would have the effect
 of precluding the assignment of bank examination duties during hours at
 the beginning and end of the workday to those employees whose commute
 between residence and workplace exceeded one hour each way, was outside
 the duty to bargain because it violated management's right to assign
 work.  In the present case, as already stated, management would be
 required to assign employees to wait either on the Agency's onshore or
 offshore premises and to travel to and from the offshore islands, which
 duties would be "performed" at the beginning and at the end of the
 regular workday.  Consequently, management would be precluded from
 assigning other types of work at those times of the workday.  Thus, this
 proposal is to the same effect as Proposal 7 in Internal Revenue
 Service, Central Region and Proposal 2 in Federal Home Loan Bank Board,
 and for the reasons stated in those cases, the Authority finds the
 proposal in dispute herein violates management's right to assign work
 under section 7106(a)(2)(B) and is outside the duty to bargain.  See
 also Proposal I in International Association of Fire Fighters, Local
 F-48, AFL-CIO and Naval Support Activity, Mare Island Station,
 California, 3 FLRA 489 (1980).
 
    Accordingly, pursuant to section 2424.10 of the Authority's Rules and
 Regulations, IT IS ORDERED that the petition for review as to the
 Union's proposal be, and it hereby is, dismissed.  /4/ 
 
 Issued, Washington, D.C., April 20, 1984
 
                                       Barbara J. Mahone, Chairman
                                       Ronald W. Haughton, Member
                                       Henry B. Frazier III, Member
                                       FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY
 
 
 
 
 
 
 --------------- FOOTNOTES$ ---------------
 
 
    /1/ Union Reply Brief at 4.
 
 
    /2/ Union Reply Brief at 2.
 
 
    /3/ Section 7106(a)(2)(B) provides:
 
          Sec. 7106.  Management rights
 
          (a) Subject to subsection (b) of this section, nothing in this
       chapter shall affect the authority of any management official of
       any agency--
 
                                .  .  .  .
 
          (2) in accordance with applicable laws--
 
                                .  .  .  .
 
          (B) to assign work, to make determinations with respect to
       contracting out, and to determine the personnel by which agency
       operations shall be conducted(.)
 
 
    /4/ Based upon the Authority's conclusion that the proposal is
 outside the duty to bargain under section 7106(a)(2)(B), it is
 unnecessary to consider other Agency contentions concerning the
 negotiability of the proposal.