A union is an organization composed in whole or in part of employees, in which employees participate and pay dues, and which has as a purpose the dealing with an agency concerning grievances and conditions of employment. Negotiating or collective bargaining is the mutual obligation of management and the union to meet at reasonable times and bargain in a good faith effort to reach agreement with respect to conditions of employment affecting employees represented by the union. Conditions of employment is a broad term which encompasses personnel policies, practices, and matters affecting working conditions. An appropriate bargaining unit is a grouping of employees that a union represents or seeks to represent and that the Federal Labor Relations Authority finds appropriate for collective bargaining purposes. The Statute provides that an agency shall recognize a labor organization as the exclusive representative of employees in a bargaining unit, if that organization has been selected as the representative by a majority of the unit's employees who voted in a secret ballot election.
Employees have the right to form, join or assist a union or to refrain from doing so.
Employees shall be free to exercise this right without fear of penalty or reprisal and shall be protected in exercising this right. A union that has been accorded exclusive recognition for a bargaining unit has a duty to fairly represent all employees in the bargaining unit. Management rights is a term which defines those areas over which management exercises exclusive decision-making authority. These rights are spelled out in the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute. The negotiated grievance procedure is a system for resolving disputes.