20:0800(97)NG - Tidewater Virginia FEMT Council and Navy Public Works Center, Norfolk, Virginia -- 1985 FLRAdec NG

 20 FLRA No. 97
 
 TIDEWATER VIRGINIA FEDERAL 
 EMPLOYEES METAL TRADES COUNCIL, 
 AFL-CIO
 Union
 
 and
 
 NAVY PUBLIC WORKS CENTER, 
 NORFOLK, VIRGINIA
 Agency
 
                                            Case No. 0-NG-1167
 
                 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 presents an issue
 concerning the negotiability of one Union proposal.  Upon careful
 consideration of the entire record, including the parties' contentions,
 the Authority makes the following determinations.  /1/
 
                              Union Proposal
 
       4b.  For those employees who wish to have their pay checks and LES
       delivered by mail, but who do not wish to have them sent to their
       homes address, the Employer will establish and maintain a central
       location to which the employees checks and LES will be mailed.
       This location shall be within the Employer's spaces and employees
       may report there to pick up their checks and LES on payday.  The
       Employer will publicize this option and make it available to all
       unit employees.
 
    The dispute herein arose as a result of the Agency's implementation
 of a new policy, whereby in lieu of hand delivery of paychecks and leave
 and earning statements (LES) it offered employees the option of mail
 distribution of paychecks and LES to a non-work address or direct
 deposit of employee pay to employee accounts in financial institutions.
 The Union's proposal, however, by its express terms, would provide
 employees with a third option by requiring the Agency to establish and
 maintain a central location at the work site to which employees could
 choose to have their paychecks and LES mailed.  In this respect, in
 Federal Employees Metal Trades Council, AFL-CIO and Department of the
 Navy, Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California, 16 FLRA No. 88
 (1984), petition for review filed, No. 85-7039 (9th Cir. Jan. 22, 1985),
 the Authority determined that an agency's selection of the method of
 employee paycheck distribution concerned the methods and means of
 performing work within the meaning of section 7106(b)(1) of the Statute
 /2/ and thus, a Union proposal pertaining to paycheck distribution was
 negotiable only at the election of the agency.  More recently, in
 Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, Navy Public Works Center,
 Norfolk, Virginia, 18 FLRA No. 79 (1985), the Authority, relying on its
 earlier decision in Mare Island Shipyard, found the Respondent
 Department of the Navy did not violate sections 7116(a)(1) and (5) of
 the Statute by preventing Respondent Navy Public Work Center from
 bargaining with the exclusive representative of unit employees regarding
 a unilateral change in the method of distributing unit employees'
 paychecks and earnings statements.  /3/ Consequently, based on Navy
 Public Works Center, and Mare Island Shipyard, the Authority concludes
 that the proposal in dispute herein which would alter the method of
 employee paycheck and LES distribution, constitutes a method and means
 of performing work within the meaning of section 7106(b)(1) of the
 Statute and is negotiable only at the Agency's election.  Therefore,
 since the Agency in this case has elected not to bargain on the method
 of paycheck and LES distribution the disputed proposal herein is outside
 the duty to bargain.  /4/
 
    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., December 4, 1985.
                                       (s)---
                                       Henry B. Frazier III, Acting
                                       Chairman
                                       (s)---
                                       William J. McGinnis, Jr., Member
                                       FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY
 
 
 
 
 
 --------------- FOOTNOTES$ ---------------
 
 
 
    /1/ The Union did not file a Reply Brief in this case.
 
 
    /2/ Section 7106(b)(1) provides in pertinent part:
 
    7106. Management rights
 
    (b) Nothing in this section shall preclude any agency and any labor
 organization from negotiating--
 
    (1) at the election of the agency, ... on the ... methods, and means
 of performing work(.)
 
 
    /3/ See also Department of the Navy, Washington, D.C. and Department
 of the Navy, U.S. Naval Supply Center, Oakland, California and American
 Federation of Government Employees, Local 1533, AFL-CIO, 19 FLRA No. 7
 (1985), petition for review filed sub nom. American Federation of
 Government Employees, AFL-CIO, Local 1533 v. FLRA, No. 85-7495 (9th Cir.
 September 6, 1985), wherein the Authority determined that since a
 proposed change in the method of paycheck and savings bond distribution
 concerned the method and means of performing work within the meaning of
 section 7106(b)(1) of the Statute and was negotiable only at the
 election of the agency, the Supply Center did not violate the Statute by
 refusing to bargain on such change.
 
 
    /4/ In view of the Authority's decision herein, the Authority finds
 it unnecessary to consider the other contentions of the Agency with
 respect to the negotiability of the proposal.