12:0064(20)NG - NFFE Local 1445 and Alabama Air NG -- 1983 FLRAdec NG

 12 FLRA No. 20
 
 NATIONAL FEDERATION OF FEDERAL
 EMPLOYEES, LOCAL 1445
 (Union)
 
 and
 
 ALABAMA AIR NATIONAL GUARD
 (Activity)
 
                                            Case No. O-NG-792
 
                   ORDER DISMISSING PETITION FOR REVIEW
 
    This matter is before the Authority pursuant to section 7105(a)(2)(D)
 and (E) of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute and
 section 2424.1 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations on a petition
 for review of negotiability issues filed by the union.  For the reasons
 indicated below, the union's petition must be dismissed.
 
    Section 2424.3 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations provides that
 the time limit for filing a petition for review is 15 days after service
 of the agency's allegation that the duty to bargain in good faith does
 not extend to the matter proposed to be bargained.
 
    From the submissions of the parties in the record before the
 Authority, it appears that the local parties executed a collective
 bargaining agreement on November 24, 1982, and forwarded the agreement
 to the agency head for review and approval pursuant to section 7114(c)
 of the Statute.  The agency head disapproved a number of provisions in
 the agreement by memorandum served on the union by mail on December 16,
 1982.  The agency's memorandum was received by the union on January 4,
 1983, and the union filed the instant petition for review with the
 Authority on January 14, 1983.
 
    In its statement of position, the agency contends, among other
 things, that the union's petition should be dismissed as untimely.  The
 union filed a response to the agency's statement in which it argues that
 the time limit for filing the petition began on the date the union
 received the agency head's disapproval rather than the date it was
 mailed, and that the instant petition is therefore timely.
 
    Contrary to the union's argument, the Authority has consistently held
 in cases such as here involved that the time limit for filing a petition
 for review begins to run from the day a copy of the agency's disapproval
 is served on the union.  /1/ See, e.g., American Federation of
 Government Employees, AFL-CIO, Local 2 and Department of the Army, U.S.
 Army Materiel Development and Readiness Command, Harry Diamond
 Laboratories, 11 FLRA No. 72 (1983);  American Federation of Government
 Employees, AFL-CIO, Local 896 and Defense Printing Service, Annapolis,
 Maryland, 6 FLRA No. 39 (1981), request for reconsideration denied:
 December 24, 1981.  Therefore, under section 2424.3, as well as sections
 2429.21 and 2429.22 of the Rules and Regulations, which are also
 applicable to the computation of the time limit here involved, since the
 agency's disapproval was served on the union by mail on December 16,
 1982, the union's petition for review had to be filed in the national
 office of the Authority no later than the close of business on January
 10, 1983, in order to be considered timely.  However, as indicated
 above, the union's petition for review was not filed until January 14,
 1983.  Therefore, the union's petition was untimely filed and must be
 denied on that basis.
 
    Accordingly, as the union's petition for review was untimely filed,
 and apart from other considerations, the petition is hereby dismissed.
 For the Authority.  Issued, Washington, D.C., May 19, 1983
                                       James J. Shepard, Executive
                                       Director
 
 
 
 
 
 
 --------------- FOOTNOTES$ ---------------
 
 
    /1/ Section 2429.27(d) of the Authority's Rules and Regulations
 specifically provides that the date of service is the date "the matter
 served is deposited in the U.S. mail or is delivered in person."