18:0530(70)NG - AFGE, National Council of Grain Inspection Locals and Agriculture, Federal Grain Inspection Service -- 1985 FLRAdec NG

 18 FLRA No. 70
 
 AMERICAN FEDERATION OF 
 GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, AFL-CIO, 
 NATIONAL COUNCIL OF GRAIN 
 INSPECTION LOCALS 
 Union 
 
 and 
 
 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 
 FEDERAL GRAIN INSPECTION SERVICE 
 Agency
 
                                            Case No. 0-NG-894
 
                 DECISION AND ORDER ON NEGOTIABILITY ISSUE
 
    The petition for review /1/ 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
 regarding the negotiability of the following Union proposal:
 
          All full-time employees in the unit will be assigned to a basic
       workweek of five consecutive days;  employees will be advised not
       less than two weeks in advance of the shift to which they will be
       assigned for the basic workweek.  Variations in the scheduled
       daily duty hours during the basic workweek will be appropriate for
       negotiations at the field office level.
 
    Upon careful consideration of the entire record, including the
 parties' contentions, the Authority makes the following determination.
 The disputed proposal in the instant case is to the same effect as
 Provision 1 in American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO,
 Local 2484 and U.S. Army Garrison, Fort Detrick, Maryland, 17 FLRA No.
 106 (1985) which would have required two weeks advance notice of changes
 in tours of duty and which the Authority found to be inconsistent with
 an applicable Government-wide regulation.  In the cited case, the
 Authority determined that 5 CFR 610.121(b)(2) (1984) obligates an agency
 head to revise an employee's administrative workweek to comport with the
 hours during which the employee will actually be required to work
 "(w)hen the head of an agency knows in advance of an administrative
 workweek" that such revision is necessary.  Thus, the Authority
 concluded that as the provision therein would have prevented the agency
 head from revising an employee's work schedule unless he or she became
 aware of the need to change work schedules not less than two weeks prior
 to the rescheduling, it was inconsistent with that regulation, which the
 Authority found to be Government-wide, and outside the duty to bargain.
 Therefore, based on U.S. Army Garrison, Fort Detrick, since the instant
 proposal would also, in certain circumstances, prevent the Agency from
 complying with that Government-wide regulation, it is likewise outside
 the duty to bargain pursuant to section 7117(a)(1) of the Statute.  /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., June 21, 1985
 
                                       Henry B. Frazier III, Acting
                                       Chairman
                                       William J. McGinnis, Jr., Member
                                       FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY
 
 
 
 
 
 
 --------------- FOOTNOTES$ ---------------
 
 
    /1/ The Agency in its Response raises a question as to the timeliness
 of the Union's petition for review because it had already provided
 unsolicited allegations of nonnegotiability to the Union prior to the
 Union's written request.  In this case, however, in accordance with
 established precedent, the Authority finds that the Union's petition for
 review was timely from the date the Agency responded to the Union's
 written request for an allegation of nonnegotiability.  International
 Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, Local 121 and Department of
 the Treasury, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Washington, D.C., 10
 FLRA 198 (1982).
 
 
    /2/ In so deciding, the Authority finds it unnecessary to consider
 the Agency's other contentions concerning the nonnegotiability of the
 proposal.