20:0439(47)NG - AFGE Local 1738 and VA Medical Center, Salisbury, NC -- 1985 FLRAdec NG

 20 FLRA No. 47
 
 AMERICAN FEDERATION OF
 GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES,
 AFL-CIO, LOCAL 1738
 Union
 
 and
 
 VETERANS ADMINISTRATION
 MEDICAL CENTER,
 SALISBURY, NORTH CAROLINA
 Agency
 
                                              Case No. 0-NG-1106
 
                 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 an issue
 concerning the negotiability of one Union proposal.  Upon careful
 consideration of the entire record, including the parties' contentions,
 the Authority makes the following determination.
 
                              Union Proposal
 
          Section 19(C).  Except in emergencies, employees assigned to
       established tours of duty will not have their assignments changed
       without at least fourteen days advance notice, unless agreed to by
       the employee.  Procedures for changes in shift assignments are
       covered in Article 34, Section 8 of this supplement.
 
    This proposal, by its terms, would require the Agency to provide
 employees with two weeks advance notice before changing established
 tours of duty.  In this regard, the disputed proposal herein is to the
 same effect as Union Provision 1 in American Federation of Government
 Employees, Local 1546 and Department of the Army, Sharpe Army Depot,
 Lathrop, California, 19 FLRA No. 118(1985), which also required the
 agency to provide employees with two weeks advance notice of changes in
 tours of duty and which the Authority found to be inconsistent with 5
 CFR 610.121, an applicable Government-wide regulation.  In that case the
 Authority, relying on its earlier decision in American Federation of
 Government Employees, AFL-CIO, Local 2484 and U.S. Army Garrison, Fort
 Detrick, Maryland, 17 FLRA No. 106(1985), petition for review filed sub
 nom. American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, Local 2848 v.
 FLRA, No. 85-1405 (D.C. Cir. July 3, 1985), found that the regulation
 obligated an agency head to revise an employee's administrative workweek
 to conform to the hours during which the employee will actually be
 required to work "(w)hen the head of the agency knows in advance of an
 administrative workweek" that a schedule revision is necessary.  The
 Authority concluded in that case that the provisions would prevent the
 agency head from revising an employee's work schedule unless the need to
 change the schedule was apparent not less than two weeks prior to the
 rescheduling.  Consequently, as the instant proposal would, in certain
 circumstances, also prevent the Agency from complying with a
 Government-wide regulation, it is, based on Sharpe Army Depot, and U.S.
 Army Garrison, Fort Detrick, outside the duty to bargain pursuant to
 section 7117(a)(1) of the Statute.
 
    Accordingly, pursuant to section 2424.10 of the Authority's Rules and
 Regulations IT IS ORDERED that the petition for review be, and it hereby
 is, dismissed.
 
    Issued, Washington, D.C., September 30, 1985
                                       Henry B. Frazier III, Acting
                                       Chairman
                                       William J. McGinnis, Jr., Member
                                       FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY