16:0050(15)AR - VA, Regional Office, Winston-Salem, NC and AFGE Local 2880 -- 1984 FLRAdec AR

 16 FLRA No. 15
 
 VETERANS ADMINISTRATION,
 REGIONAL OFFICE,
 WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA
 Activity
 
 and
 
 AMERICAN FEDERATION OF
 GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES,
 LOCAL 2880, AFL-CIO
 Union
 
                                            Case No. O-AR-355
 
                                 DECISION
 
    This matter is before the Authority on an exception to the award of
 Arbitrator Robert G. Williams filed by the Union under section 7122(a)
 of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute and part 2425
 of the Authority's Rules and Regulations.  The Agency filed an
 opposition.  /1/
 
    According to the Arbitrator, the grievants in this case filed a
 grievance contending that they were entitled to an accurate position
 description and seeking as a remedy to have their position descriptions
 revised to reflect their actual duties and work.  The Arbitrator as his
 award denied the grievance determining that it was barred by section
 7121(c)(5) of the Statute which precludes most grievances concerning the
 classification of any position.  In the opinion of the Arbitrator, any
 request to revise a position description cannot be grieved because the
 adequacy of the position description concerns the classification of the
 position and because any significant change in the position description
 would lead to a reclassification.  The Union filed an exception
 contending that the award is contrary to law.
 
    In Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation,
 Tampa, Florida and Federal Aviation Science and Technological
 Association, National Association of Government Employees, Tampa,
 Florida, 8 FLRA 532, 535 n.3 (1982) the Authority specifically held that
 section 7121(c)(5) of the Statute
 
       in no manner prevents grievances concerning, and arbitral review
       of, the accuracy of an employee's official position description,
       including whether the duties regularly assigned by management and
       performed by the employee are accurately reflected by the position
       description, and it in no manner prevents an arbitrator, as
       appropriate, from ordering an agency to change the position
       description if the agency has decided to add unrelated duties to
       the position to be regularly performed by the employee.  Because
       such an order does not directly concern position classification,
       it would be proper even if the change in the position description
       results in a classification appeal or a reclassification of the
       position.
 
 In terms of this case, the Arbitrator's award denying the grievance as
 barred by section 7121(c)(5) is directly contrary to that provision as
 interpreted and applied by the Authority in FAA, Tampa.  Accordingly,
 the award is set aside.  
 
 Issued, Washington, D.C., September 26, 1984
 
                                       Henry B. Frazier III, Acting
                                       Chairman
                                       Ronald W. Haughton, Member
                                       FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY
 
 
 
 
 
 
 --------------- FOOTNOTES$ ---------------
 
 
    /1/ The Agency has also filed a motion to dismiss, but the Authority
 finds that no basis for dismissing the Union's exception is provided.