14:0278(51)NG - AFGE Local 32 and OPM -- 1984 FLRAdec NG

 14 FLRA No. 51
 
 AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT
 EMPLOYEES, AFL-CIO, LOCAL 32
 Union
 
 and
 
 OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
 Agency
 
                                            Case No. O-NG-908
 
                 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 an issue
 relating to the negotiability of the following union proposal.
 
          Any grievance filed by the agency must be signed by the
       Director of OPM.
 
    Upon careful consideration of the entire record, including the
 parties' contentions, the Authority makes the following determination.
 The disputed proposal, by requiring that all grievances filed by the
 Agency must be signed by the Agency's director, prescribes a specific
 duty which the director would perform under certain circumstances.  In
 this regard, the proposal is to the same effect as the Union's Proposal
 in National Federation of Federal Employees, Local 78 and Veterans
 Administration Regional Office, Indianapolis, Indiana, 9 FLRA 819
 (1982), which prescribed specific duties which particular nonbargaining
 personnel in the agency would perform.  The Authority therein, found the
 proposal outside the duty to bargain since it would directly interfere
 with management's right to assign work under section 7106(a)(2)(B) of
 the Statute by eliminating the discretion inherent in that right.  /1/
 Contrary to the Union's argument herein, the instant proposal would
 effectively preclude management from assigning the duty of signing
 grievances to other employees, thereby eliminating the discretion
 inherent in management's right to assign work.  Hence, based on Veterans
 Administration Regional Office and the case cited therein, the proposal
 herein is likewise outside the duty to bargain.  /2/
 
    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., April 20, 1984
                                       Barbara J. Mahone, Chairman
                                       Ronald W. Haughton, Member
                                       Henry B. Frazier III, Member
                                       FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY
 
 
 
 
 
 
 --------------- FOOTNOTES$ ---------------
 
 
    /1/ Section 7106(a)(2)(B) provides as follows:
 
          Sec. 7106.  Management rights
 
          (a) Subject to subsection (b) of this section, nothing in this
       chapter shall affect the authority of any management official of
       any agency--
 
                                .  .  .  .
 
          (2) in accordance with applicable laws--
 
                                .  .  .  .
 
          (B) to assign work, to make determinations with respect to
       contracting out, and to determine the personnel by which agency
       operations shall be conducted(.)
 
 
    /2/ Based on the decision herein, the Authority finds it unnecessary
 to address the Agency's additional argument as to the nonnegotiability
 of the proposal.