12:0316(70)NG - AFSCME Locals 2477 and 2910 and Library of Congress -- 1983 FLRAdec NG

 12 FLRA No. 70
 
 AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE,
 COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES,
 LOCALS 2477 and 2910
 Union
 
 and
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
 Agency
 
                                            Case No. O-NG-381
 
                 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 issues
 relating to the negotiability of the following Union proposal.
 
                       Administrative Detail Program
 
          Special emphasis will be given to consideration of
       underrepresented groups identified for affirmative action.  Two
       series of details will be offered in FY '81, with a minimum of 8
       participants.  (The underlined portion of the proposal is in
       dispute.)
 
    The subject of the Union proposal, the Agency's Administrative Detail
 Program, is described by the Agency as follows:
 
          The program is designed to provide employees who are motivated
       but who have had little, if any, previous management experience
       with a short-term opportunity (3 months) to exercise, develop, and
       evaluate their interest in, and potential for, management . . . .
       The number of details for each department (which has never
       exceeded (2) two) has been determined by the (Agency) based on
       availability of resources, work and overall opportunities.
 
    The Union's proposal, however, would obligate the Agency temporarily
 to reassign in a fiscal year a minimum of 16 employees who meet the
 stated criterion.  Based on the record and the specific language of the
 proposal, such reassignments would be to positions involving managerial
 duties and would be required regardless of whether positions or work of
 a managerial nature were available for the identified employees.  In
 this regard, the proposal is to the same effect as Union Proposal I in
 American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, Local 695 and
 Department of the Treasury, U.S. Mint, Denver, Colorado, 3 FLRA 43
 (1980), which the Authority found to violate management's right to
 assign under section 7106(a)(2)(A) of the Statute because, under the
 proposal's requirement that employees be rotated weekly to new work
 assignments irrespective of whether any new work was available which
 required the performance of such duties or whether previous work
 assignments had been completed, "management would be restricted in
 making new assignments, or in modifying, terminating, or continuing
 existing ones as deemed necessary or desirable." Hence, based on the
 U.S. Mint, Denver, Colorado decision, and the reasons stated therein,
 the instant proposal is outside the duty to bargain.  /1/
 
    Accordingly, pursuant to section 2424.10 of the Authority's Rules and
 Regulations, IT IS ORDERED that the Union's petition for review be, and
 it hereby is, dismissed.  Issued, Washington, D.C., July 21, 1983
                                       Barbara J. Mahone, Chairman
                                       Ronald W. Haughton, Member
                                       Henry B. Frazier III, Member
                                       FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY
 
 
 
 
 
 
 --------------- FOOTNOTES$ ---------------
 
 
    /1/ In view of the decision herein, it is unnecessary to address the
 Agency's contentions concerning the applicability of section 7106(b)(1)
 of the Statute to the instant dispute.