12:0625(119)NG - NAAE Branch No. 11 and Agricultural, Animal And Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine -- 1983 FLRAdec NG

 12 FLRA No. 119
 
 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
 AGRICULTURE EMPLOYEES, BRANCH NO. 11
 Union
 
 and
 
 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, ANIMAL
 AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION AND
 QUARANTINE
 Agency
 
                                            Case No. O-NG-592
 
                   ORDER DISMISSING PETITION FOR REVIEW
 
    This petition for review comes before the Authority pursuant to
 section 7105(a)(2)(E) of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations
 Statute (the Statute).  For the following reasons it has been determined
 that the Union's petition must be dismissed.
 
    The record indicates that during negotiation of a local supplement to
 a national agreement the Union submitted a proposal concerning
 supervisory overtime which it argues concerns "procedures to be
 implemented at the subordinate level and with working conditions." The
 Agency contends, inter alia, that pursuant to the national agreement "it
 is inappropriate to bargain a Subordinate Agreement at the District
 Office level on (this proposal)." Thus, the threshold dispute between
 the parties in this case concerns whether, under these circumstances, a
 bargaining obligation exists at the local level.  Such a dispute does
 not give rise to a negotiability issue which may be resolved pursuant to
 section 7117 of the Statute.  Rather, the issue involved should have
 been processed either through the unfair labor practice procedures of
 the Statute or through whatever mechanisms the parties may have adopted
 in their negotiated agreement to handle such disputes.  See National
 Treasury Employees Union and National Treasury Employees Union, Chapter
 71 and Internal Revenue Service, Philadelphia Service Center,
 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 4 FLRA No. 103 (1980).
 
    Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that the Union's petition for review be,
 and it hereby is, dismissed.  
 
 Issued, Washington, D.C., August 22, 1983
 
                                       Barbara J. Mahone, Chairman
                                       Ronald W. Haughton, Member
                                       Henry B. Frazier III, Member
                                       FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY