19:1012(117)NG - AFGE Local 2612 and Air Force, HQ, 416th Combat Support Group (SAC), Griffiss AFB, NY -- 1985 FLRAdec NG

 19 FLRA No. 117
 
 AMERICAN FEDERATION OF
 GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES,
 LOCAL 2612, AFL-CIO
 Union
 
 and
 
 DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE,
 HEADQUARTERS, 416th COMBAT
 SUPPORT GROUP (SAC), GRIFFISS
 AIR FORCE BASE, NEW YORK
 Agency
 
                                            Case No. O-NG-1060
 
                DECISION AND ORDER ON NEGOTIABILITY ISSUES
 
    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 presents issues
 relating to the negotiability of two Union proposals.  Upon careful
 consideration of the entire record, including the parties' contentions,
 the Authority makes the following determinations.
 
                             Union Proposal 1
 
          Employees held over for overtime will be paid a minimum of four
       hours overtime, regardless of actual time worked.
 
    The Union's proposal would establish four hours as the minimum amount
 of overtime to be paid an employee who is held over from his shift, even
 if the employee does not work the full four hours.  In this regard, 5
 U.S.C. 5542, which authorizes the payment of overtime for General
 Schedule employees, provides in relevant part:
 
          Sec. 5542.  Overtime rates;  computation
 
          (a) For full-time, part-time and intermittent tours of duty,
       hours of work officially ordered or approved in excess of 40 hours
       in an administrative workweek, or . . . in excess of 8 hours in a
       day, performed by an employee are overtime work(.)
 
                                .  .  .  .
 
          (b) For the purpose of this subchapter--
 
          (1) Unscheduled overtime work performed by an employee on a day
       when work was not scheduled for him, or for which he is required
       to return to his place of employment, is deemed at least 2 hours
       in duration(.)
 
    Section 5542(a) only authorizes the payment of overtime to an
 employee for the actual time duty is performed.  /1/ The Authority
 addressed 5 U.S.C. 5542 in International Brotherhood of Electrical
 Workers, Local 2080, AFL-CIO-CLC and Department of the Army, U.S. Corps
 of Engineers, Nashville, Tennessee, 10 FLRA 222, 228-30 (1982) (Union
 Proposal 3).  In that case, the Authority held that a proposal which
 would establish four hours as the minimum amount of callback overtime
 was outside the duty to bargain.  Specifically, the Authority stated
 that 5 U.S.C. 5542(b)(1), which provides that an employee shall be paid
 for a minimum of two hours for callback overtime work, creates an
 exception to the general rule that overtime payments can be made only
 for the actual time duty is performed.  /2/ Since the exception set a
 maximum of two hours that an employee could be paid for callback
 overtime not actually performed, the Authority concluded that the
 proposed minimum of four hours overtime was outside the duty to bargain.
  /3/
 
    In terms of this case, unlike the exception for callback overtime, no
 provision authorizes a minimum number of hours for which an employee
 must be compensated when held over from his shift.  Consequently, since
 Union