24:0428(44)AR - HUD and AFGE Local 476 -- 1986 FLRAdec AR

 24 FLRA No. 44
 
 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING 
 AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
 Agency
 
 and
 
 AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT 
 EMPLOYEES, AFL-CIO, LOCAL 476
 Union
 
                                            Case No. 0-AR-1259
 
                        ORDER DISMISSING EXCEPTIONS
 
    This case is before the Authority on exceptions to the award of
 Arbitrator Jerome H. Ross filed by the Union pursuant to section 7122(a)
 of the Federal Service Labor-Management Regulations Statute and section
 2425.1 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations.  For the reason stated
 below, it has been determined that the exceptions must be dismissed as
 untimely filed.
 
    The Arbitrator's award is dated September 24, 1986, and, in the
 absence of evidence to the contrary, appears to have been served on the
 parties by mail on the same day.
 
    Under section 7122(b) of the Statute, as amended, /1/ and section
 2425.1 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations, as amended, /2/ which
 amendments are applicable to exceptions pending or filed with the
 Authority on or after March 2, 1984, and under sections 2429.21 and
 2429.22 of the Rules and Regulations, which are also applicable to
 computation of the time limit here involved, any exceptions to the
 Arbitrator's award in this case had to be filed, that is, received in
 the national office of the Authority not later than the close of
 business on October 28, 1986.
 
    However, the exceptions were not filed with the Authority at its
 national office in Washington, D.C., until October 30, 1986.  The Union
 sent the exceptions by regular mail from Takoma Park, Maryland on
 October 23, 1986.  In this regard, the record establishes that while the
 Union identified the Authority as the addressee on the envelope
 containing the exceptions, the remainder of the address used on the
 envelope was that of the national office of the National Labor Relations
 Board.  The Office of the Executive Secretary of the National Labor
 Relations Board received the exceptions on October 28, 1986, and then
 forwarded them to the national office of the Authority.  The exceptions
 were not received by the Authority's national office until October 30,
 1986, /3/ and, therefore, were untimely filed.
 
    Accordingly, as the Union's exceptions were untimely filed, they are
 hereby dismissed.
 
    For the Authority.
 
    Issued, Washington, D.C., December 11, 1986.
                                       /s/ Harold D. Kessler
                                       Director of Case Management
 
 
                ---------------  FOOTNOTES$ ---------------
 
 
 
    (1) Section 7122(b) of the Statute was amended by the Civil Service
 Miscellaneous Amendments Act of 1983 (Pub. L. No. 98-224, Section 4, 98
 Stat. 47, 48 (1984) ) to provide that the 30-day period for filing
 exceptions to an arbitrator's award begins on the date the award is
 served on the filing party.
 
    (2) 49 Fed. Reg. 22623 (1984).
 
    (3) Since the Authority's inception in 1979, its Rules and
 Regulations have required that exceptions to an Arbitrator's award must
 be filed with the Authority at its national office in Washington, D.C.