42:0935(67)NG - AFGE, NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL and U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, INS -- 1991 FLRAdec NG

  42 FLRA NO. 67

                AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
                      NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL
                                  (Union)

                                    and

                        U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
                   IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE
                                  (Agency)

                                 0-NG-1942

                     ORDER DISMISSING PETITION FOR REVIEW

                              October 18, 1991

     The Union has filed a petition for review of negotiability
issues in the above-captioned case. The petition encompasses two
proposals relating to an Agency decision to make successful
completion of a Driver's Training course a mandatory requirement
for graduation from the Border Patrol Academy. As relevant here,
Proposal 2 concerns maintenance of the status quo in the manner
of calculating and applying driver training course scores to the
successful completion of the Border Patrol Academy. 1/  For the
following reasons, the Union's petition as to Proposal 2 must be
dismissed.

     The Authority will consider a petition for review of a
negotiability issue only where the parties are in dispute over
whether a proposal is inconsistent with law, rule, or regulation.
For example, National Association of Government Employees, Local
R1-109 and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Medical Center,
Newington, Connecticut, 38 FLRA  928, 931 (1990) (Newington).
Where the conditions for review of negotiability issues are met,
a union is entitled to a decision as to whether a proposal is
negotiable under the Statute. See American Federation of
Government Employees, AFL - CIO, Local 2736 v. FLRA,  715 F.2d
627, 631 (D.C. Cir. 1983).

     In this case, the Agency asserts that it has not alleged
Proposal 2 to be nonnegotiable. The Union disagrees, relying on
an Agency letter dated