difference between nlrb and flra

", National Labor Relations Board. encompassed in those proposals. Around this time, an architecture firm, WDG, was selected to design the interior space at Half Street. Luther also stated that the Union would be contacting the FMCS for assistance. When the National Labor Relations Board announced that it would be moving its headquarters to a new building in a different part of the District of Columbia, the National Labor Relations Board Union asked to bargain over the relocation, and the parties ultimately signed a ground rules agreement providing for two days of bargaining. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. Hiro Isogai, a designer at WDG, showed slides of each floors layout, explained their details, and answered questions. cubicles. Tr. . 465. The NLRBs objective is to safeguard most private-sector employees rights to bargain for better wages and working conditions, either with or without a union. [I]t was not necessary to explicitly lay out those types of bargaining, because they dont involve the same logistics that face-to-face bargaining does. Tr. FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY OALJ 16-16 Office of Administrative Law Judges WASHINGTON, D.C. 20424. About 450 people work at its headquarters office in Washington, D.C. Tr. It didnt have to be face-to-face. The primary responsibilities of the FLRA are to: Resolve complaints of unfair labor practices (ULPs). some of the areas [of] discussions that we had with the Union, such as the Unions suggestion to have a second nursing room. . What is the Purpose of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)? The relocation process involved a series of drawings that would increase in complexity as the project progressed. Tr. As the GC has noted, between February 5 and April 14 the Union repeatedly requested preliminary drawings of the new offices floor plans and details regarding the size and configuration of the existing offices of bargaining unit employees. [5] In August 2021, President Biden nominated eight-year assistant general counsel Kurt Rumsfeld to the position.[6]. Tr. Find a listing of FLRA contacts that you can call for more information. willing to continue bargaining regarding the headquarters relocation by various means, including but not limited to face-to-face bargaining, telephonic bargaining, email and video conferencing. Fine, were obligated to bargain. . 36 at 1; On May 6, the Union submitted an information request asking for information about the size and type of workspace each employee had at Franklin Court, and the size of building space at Franklin Court not specifically assigned as personal workspace, among other things. The Union is a labor organization within the meaning of 7103(a)(4) of the Statute and is the exclusive representative of two bargaining units of the Respondents employees. Tr. [on] the 24th, we walked through each of these and there was some general discussion. . WE WILL NOT unilaterally change working conditions of employees in the bargaining unit represented by the Union concerning the relocation of the Agency headquarters without notifying the Union and affording it an opportunity to negotiate to the extent required by the Statute. In the afternoon, bargaining teams from the two unions (along with several interested NLRB managers) attended a series of briefings. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent federal agency created by the U.S. Congress in 1935 to enforce the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Government. The primary responsibilities of the FLRA are to: Resolve complaints of unfair labor practices (ULPs). Accordingly, I recommend that the Authority adopt the following Order: Pursuant to 2423.41(c) of the Rules and Regulations of the Authority and 7118 of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (theStatute), the National Labor Relations Board (the Agency) shall: (a) Terminating bargaining over the relocation of its headquarters office prior to reaching an agreement or prior to reaching an impasse with the National Labor Relations Board Union (the Union). . At the Agencys headquarters, the Union represents about sixty-two employees. 90-91. . Despite significant differences between the parties' proposed telework arrangements, both parties identified maximizing telework opportunities for bargaining unit employees as a primary interest. 386-87; Jt. But the ULP also involved, and was of concern to, the Unions members outside the Washington, D.C., area, as the bargaining units are nationwide in scope and many of the Union negotiators worked outside Washington. measurements of those offices. The Chicago Regional Office of the Federal Labor Relations Authority offers this training to parties involved in "change bargaining" under the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute. The Respondent argues that its actions were justified, given the fact that it was under pressure to give the architects comments on the preliminary drawings by May 9. GC Ex. 182-86; GC Ex. The FLRA is charged with safeguarding the rights of certain non-postal federal employees, while the NLRB protects the rights of most private-sector employees. and . Jones added that bargaining other than face-to-face bargaining would present a number of practical difficulties, saying, We couldnt possibly try to negotiate a subject as complicated as the complete relocation of the Agencys headquarters by email or telephone. Thats a change in conditions. In Weingarten, we upheld the National Labor Relations Board's conclusion that an employer's denial of an employee's request to have a union representative present at an investigatory interview, . Date: _________________ By: _______________________________________________ Chairman, National Labor Relations Board (Signature), Date: _________________ By: ______________________________________________ General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board (Signature). The Respondent is an agency within the meaning of 7103(a)(3) of the Statute. The second method is to petition the agency for amendment or rescission of the regulations and then to appeal the agencys action. (As it turned out, the Agency would end up staying past its lease, becoming a holdover tenant. Most of those employees work for the Agencys General Counsel (including about eight or nine who work for the Washington Resident Office, also referred to as the WRO, which is a division of the Baltimore Regional Office); about fifteen work for the Board. One member is appointed by the President to serve as chairman, chief executive officer, and chief administrative officer of the FLRA. The April 23 session ended at that point; the parties left it that we disagree[] as to whether bargaining would continue beyond the next day. Some of the drawings were dated April 9 (GC Ex. 264). The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) was passed in 1935 and later amended by the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA), also known as the Taft-Hartley Act, in 1947. , 50 FLRA 701, 704 (1995), it is clear that the relocation of NLRB headquarters from Franklin Court to Half Street would significantly change the conditions of employment for all employees. In response to Proposal 12 that employees who had window offices at Franklin Court would have the same at Half Street Jones stated, well try to see how many window offices we can get in the Washington Resident Office, but again they are the only people who have offices.. Then the Agency advised the Union that GSA was forcing them to finalize all prospective changes to the floor plans within a matter of days. Second, the Agency effectively gave the Union a matter of hours 3:52 to 6:33 p.m., or perhaps a bit longer, if the Union had agreed to continue bargaining into the evening to analyze the Agencys twenty-one counterproposals and provide written responses to them. Our bottom line view at this point is that we have fulfilled our obligation to bargain under the terms of [the] ground rules agreement. Graham, who attended the meeting and who worked closely with the GSA contract officer, testified that once the comments on the preliminary drawings were submitted, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, for architects to change certain aspects of the design, such as the location of walls or the number or size of workspaces. Find everything you need to know about filing a casewith the FLRA. In, Once the Agency stopped bargaining on April 25, it began to unilaterally implement all manner of decisions related to the relocation. All of the Unions proposals relating to size and configuration were dismissed out of hand by Jones, and the Unions refusal to accept his rejection of those proposals was interpreted as intransigence. 275; On April 28, Lennie offered further discussions about the BUs concerns that week, and the Union accepted. 115. 335-36. . The Authority has stated that the location in which employees perform their duties, as well as other aspects of employees office environments, are matters at the very heart of the traditional meaning of conditions of employment.. 3; Tr. On Wednesday, April 23, the Unions bargaining team met with Agency representatives Jones and Graham. The Agency offers two primary justifications for its actions: itargues that the Union waived its right to further bargaining when it agreed to the ground rules, and it further insists that when the second day of bargaining ended, the parties had reached impasse. 428. One important difference between the two laws is the scope of the authorized collective bargaining process. National Labor Relations Act., National Labor Relations Board. 9; Resp. More information to follow. On the morning of Tuesday, April 22, the Union bargaining team, and Jones, Graham, and Lennie, toured Half Street, whose interiors were still mostly empty. 12. 137; GC Ex. (All communication between the parties was by email, unless otherwise noted.) Finally, it should be emphasized, as the Authority did in. Tr. The reason that knowing the distinction between employment laws and labor laws is important, especially when hiring an attorney, is because lawyers who claim to be both labor and employment lawyers have a tendency to specialize in one and dabble in the other. Jones testified that his team tried to find areas where we could compromise[,] but he acknowledged that they did not provide specific counterproposals for each Union proposal. The judge and the Authority rejected this theory and held that while it might be desirable from the Unions viewpoint to be a participant in the, decision-making process at an earlier stage, it is difficult to envision an obligation on SSAs part . On April 17, the Union and the Agency exchanged communications (both verbally and in writing) that ultimately resulted in their reaching a ground rules agreement. . 72-73; GC Ex. However, it is my experience that this is the exception and not the rule. The FLRA is the federal public sector counterpart to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which governs labor relations between private sector employees and employers. At the hearing, Durkin recalled: [W]e were incensed. Unlike the Unions proposed ground rules, the Agencys proposals did not refer to an initial bargaining session.. Ex. It protects the rights of most private-sector employees, who can petition it for help in efforts to collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions. In light of the fact that the bargaining offers were made in the midst of trilateral settlement negotiations, and that the Respondent was unwilling to settle the underlying ULP complaint against it, the offers were inadequate, using the NLRBs own case precedent as a benchmark. Brief Fact Summary. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent federal agency created by the U.S. Congress in 1935 to enforce the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)a landmark piece of legislation designed to protect the rights of most private-sector employees to collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions with or without the help of a labor union. The Court distinguished between indirect attacks on the substantive validity of regulations initiated over sixty days after their promulgation from attacks on their procedural lineage. Tr. During bargaining, Jones would be joined by Jessica Graham, Assistant Chief of the Space Management Section, Facilities Branch; Andrew Krafts, Deputy Chief Counsel to Member Nancy Schiffer; and Rachel Lennie, an Assistant General Counsel. 32 at 1. This argument ignores the important difference between the text of the NLRA and the text of the FSLMRS. For example, where attorneys that practice mainly employment law can spend a significant portion of their time dealing with the court system, labor law attorneys may only sparingly deal with the court system because most of their time is spent with government agencies. (c) In any like or related manner, interfering with, restraining, or coercing bargaining unit employees in the exercise of the rights assured them by the Statute. Tr. 109. Tr. . GC Ex. 22. at 12, 14. Third, the Agency failed to respond in writing to all of the Unions proposals, including the Unions proposal on furniture (Proposal 36). . Griffin also referred to competing concerns from the different divisions within the Agency. Tr. Based on the entire record, including my observation of the witnesses and their demeanor, I make the following findings of fact, conclusions of law, and recommendations. Tr. Employment laws are essentially all employment-related laws that are not labor laws. GC Ex. The primary responsibilities of the FLRA are to: Resolve complaints of unfair labor practices (ULPs). Based on feedback from committee members at the October 15 meeting, the Agency successfully appealed to GSA officials for expanded furniture options; the Agency needed to solicit and obtain employee preferences regarding types of furniture by December 3. The agency is separate from the National Labor Relations Board, which governs private-sector labor relations. Fourth, the parties were close to agreement on a number of issues. . Labor-Management Relations Statute, Chapter 71 of Title 5 of the U.S. Code, 5 U.S.C. This decision was vacated and remanded in NLRB Union, Local 6 v. Without unions, pension and health care benefits deteriorate and workers' interests in safe and healthy workplaces and in stable employment go unheard and unheeded by employers and by the government alike. I also believe that in these factual circumstances, the Union should, as the court envisioned in. Also, Jones acknowledged that [t]here wasnt a deadline on furniture for May 9th. Tr. , 25 FLRA 787, 789-90 (1987). The Federal Labor Relations Authority has found that the National Labor Relations Board violated the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (the Statute), and has ordered us to post and abide by this notice: WE WILL NOT terminate bargaining over the relocation of our headquarters offices in Washington, D.C., prior to reaching an agreement or prior to reaching an impasse with the National Labor Relations Board Union (the Union). Harry Jones, Assistant General Counsel for Labor and Employee Relations, represented management during the move. 472. I guess we will have to agree to disagree about any further bargaining. The next day, Luther informed Jones, In light of your rejection of our . Finally, the GC requests a nationwide posting. 39. But the Agency would not defer bargaining about furniture to a later time, as that would be like buying a pig in a poke. Tr. 25 at 5, 7. Impact of the NLRB on Professional Sports., The New York Times. 25. They include federal laws such as the: State laws that are typically considered employment laws include each states various wage and hour laws, wage payment laws, and leave laws. Meanwhile, it withheld from the Union the ongoing dialogue between Agency officials and the new buildings architects about the proposed plans for the new headquarters. A conference call discussing furniture issues was conducted on that date, although the Union told Jones it did not consider the discussion to satisfy the Agencys statutory duty to bargain. GC Ex. GC Exs. The Union asserted that its tentative agreement to the counterproposals does not limit or waive the Unions right to submit proposals and/or counterproposals, and to engage in bargaining regarding headquarters relocation. . Nonetheless, their disagreement about the meaning of paragraph 2 of the ground rules agreement became evident almost immediately. An agencys regulations may be attacked in two ways after the statute of limitations has expired. Half Street. Durkin testified that around this time, the Union team told the Agency team that they were willing to continue bargaining, but we cant continue and expect to wrap up bargaining that night. Tr. the judges discussion of the agencys duty to allow a reasonable time for the bargaining process to occur. 12 at 1. It makes no sense for the Agency to use the ground rules to declare that bargaining was over, when those very ground rules enabled either party to initiate mediation. Statute, Chapter 71 of Title 5 of the FSLMRS for the bargaining process to.... To petition the Agency the primary responsibilities of the FLRA are to Resolve... Did not refer to an initial bargaining session.. Ex 28, Lennie offered discussions. Labor Relations Act., National labor Relations AUTHORITY OALJ 16-16 Office of Administrative Judges! 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