Summary
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that nonpreference-eligible excepted service employees could not obtain, through collective bargaining, arbitration procedures for reviewing adverse personnel actions under chapters 43 and 75 of the Civil Service Reform Act. The court concluded that allowing such arbitration would undermine the CSRA's integrated remedial structure, including MSPB primacy, Federal Circuit review, and Congress's preference for competitive-service and preference-eligible employees. The court granted the Treasury Department's petition for review and issued a supplemental opinion addressing the limited judicial review of FLRA decisions concerning arbitration awards.
Holdings
- The CSRA does not permit nonpreference-eligible excepted-service employees who lack statutory MSPB appeal rights to obtain equivalent arbitral review of adverse personnel actions through a negotiated grievance procedure.
- The court could not adopt the FLRA's proposed requirement that it apply MSPB law when reviewing such arbitration awards because that approach would effectively amend the statute and, under Griffith, most FLRA review of arbitration awards would not be reviewable in federal court.
Questions Presented
- Whether nonpreference-eligible excepted-service employees who lack a statutory right to appeal adverse personnel actions to the MSPB may obtain that review through a collectively bargained grievance-arbitration procedure.
- Whether the CSRA's remedial structure and allocation of review authority make arbitration of adverse personnel actions involving those employees inconsistent with federal law and therefore nonnegotiable.
- Whether the FLRA could ensure statutory uniformity by requiring itself to apply MSPB precedent when reviewing arbitration awards involving nonpreference-eligible excepted-service employees.
Disposition
other
Cases Cited (10)
- NTEU v. FLRA, 848 F.2d 1273, 1275 (D.C. Cir. 1988)(followed)
- Department of Justice v. FLRA, 709 F.2d 724, 728-29 & n.21 (D.C. Cir. 1983)(followed)
- Department of Health and Human Services v. FLRA, 858 F.2d 1278 (7th Cir. 1988)(followed)
- United States v. Fausto, 484 U.S. 439, 108 S. Ct. 668, 98 L. Ed. 2d 830 (1988)(followed)
- Harrison v. Bowen, 815 F.2d 1505, 1510 (D.C. Cir. 1987)(followed)
- U.S. Soldiers and Airmen's Home and AFGE, Local 3090, 11 F.L.R.A. 692 n.* (1983)(followed)
- United Steelworkers v. Enterprise Wheel & Car Corp., 363 U.S. 593, 80 S. Ct. 1358, 4 L. Ed. 2d 1424 (1960)(followed)
- Wade v. Department of the Navy, 829 F.2d 1106, 1108-10 (Fed. Cir. 1987)(followed)
- Griffith v. FLRA, 842 F.2d 487, 490-92 (D.C. Cir. 1988)(followed)
- Leedom v. Kyne, 358 U.S. 184, 79 S. Ct. 180, 3 L. Ed. 2d 210 (1958)(followed)
Cited In (0)
No citing cases on record yet.