Source: http://www.flra.gov/fsip/finalact/95fs_150.html
Timestamp: 2015-03-06 06:06:39
Document Index: 566030016

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 6120', '§ 6131', '§ 2472', '§ 6131', '§ 2472', '§ 6131']

DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE SELFRIDGE AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE SELFRIDGE ANG BASE, MICHIGAN AND LOCAL 2077, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, AFL-CIO Case No. 95 FSIP 150 | FLRA.GOV
Authority Chairman and Members Find Types of Cases, Biographical Data, and Contact Information.Office of the General Counsel Regional Offices, Guidances, Policies, Manuals, ULP Process, Forms, Representation, ADR Services, and Training.Federal Service Impasses Panel Find Jurisdiction, Statute, Work Schedules Act, Biographical Data, and Contact Information.Solicitor, Administrative Law Judges, IG & Others Find General Information about these Offices and Contact Information.training & alternative dispute resolutionFind FLRA Training Information and ADR Services. DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE SELFRIDGE AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE SELFRIDGE ANG BASE, MICHIGAN AND LOCAL 2077, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, AFL-CIO United States of America
DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE SELFRIDGE AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE SELFRIDGE ANG BASE, MICHIGAN
LOCAL 2077, AMERICAN FEDERATION
Case No. 95 FSIP 150
Local 2077,
American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO (Union), and the Department
of the Air Force, Selfridge Air National Guard (ANG) Base, Selfridge ANG Base,
Michigan (Employer) filed a joint request for assistance with the Federal
Service Impasses Panel (Panel) to consider a negotiation impasse pursuant to the
U.S.C. § 6120 et seq., to resolve an impasse arising from the Employer’s
determination to terminate a compressed work schedule (CWS).
investigation of the request for assistance, the Panel determined to assert
jurisdiction over the case and to assist the parties through an informal
conference with a Panel representative. The parties were advised that if no
status of the dispute. After considering the report and the recommendations of
its representative, the Panel would take final action in accordance with 5 U.S.C.
§ 6131 and 5 C.F.R. § 2472.12 of its regulations.
Panel's determination, Panel Member Edward F. Hartfield met with the parties at
Selfridge ANG Base, Michigan, on December 4, 1995. During the conference, Member
Hartfield toured the Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory (PMEL), and
interviewed two bargaining-unit employees and two supervisors who work in the
laboratory. The parties, however, did not resolve the dispute during the course
of this procedure. The Employer provided a data package to Member Hartfield on
the day of the conference. In addition, the Employer also introduced several
letters from other military facilities that described their experience with
flexible work schedules. In accordance with Mr. Hartfield’s directions, the
Union submitted a written statement on December 6, 1995, to address those
documents the Employer provided near the end of the informal conference. Member
Hartfield has reported to the Panel and it has now considered the entire record,
including written materials submitted by both parties.
The Employer maintains a mission-capable,
combat-ready force of F-16 fighter aircraft. Selfridge ANG Base is one of three
Air Force bases in the United States owned and operated by the National Guard,
but it is under the Department of the Air Force. The Union represents 570
bargaining-unit employees at pay grades GS-2 through -11 who work in support
positions providing aircraft maintenance, snow removal, and other services
needed for operating an Air Force Base. The 19 employees in the PMEL are
highly-trained technicians who are engaged in calibrating, repairing, aligning,
and recalibrating navigational instruments and tools such as torque wrenches for
21 military organizations in 7 states. At 180-day intervals, they also calibrate
jet engine test cells at a number of airfields from a mobile laboratory housed
in a trailer. Laboratory employees work a variety of schedules: the 4 employees
who will be affected by the outcome of this dispute are on a 4-10 CWS; 1
employee is on a 5-4/9 CWS; and 14 employees are on 8-hour days.(1) The parties’ collective-bargaining agreement (CBA) is due to expire on March 13, 1998.
The dispute concerns the Employer’s
determination to terminate the 4-10 CWS in the PMEL. The specific issue before
the Panel is the following:
Whether the finding on which the
Employer has based its determination to terminate the 4-10 CWS is supported
by evidence that the schedule has caused an adverse agency impact as defined
under the Act.(2)
Essentially, the Employer asserts that the Panel
should find that the evidence on which it bases its determination to terminate
the 4-10 CWS for four employees in the PMEL establishes that the schedule has
caused an adverse agency impact as defined under the Act. Performance data
compiled at two intervals over the last year indicate that the productivity of
the 4 employees on the 4-10 CWS is significantly lower than that of the 14
employees on a regular 8-hour, 5-day-a-week schedule. In this regard, for the 11
months ending on June 26, 1995, employees on the 10-hour shifts, on average,
completed 43.02 units of work per month as compared with 55.01 units completed
by employees on 8-hour shifts.(3) The aggregate data reveal that employees on
10-hour shifts accomplish 22 percent less work than employees on 8-hour shifts.
Since each group receives a share of work that "represents a cross-section
of equipment by complexity and time requirements, i.e., from tire gauges
and micrometers to complex integrated electronics test sets," the
comparison of work unit completion totals is not skewed by differences in the
difficulty and complexity of the work each employee actually performed. In
addition, the backlog levels have steadily risen from 8 days in January 1995 to
16 days in November 1995; based on current trends, if changes are not made to
employees’ work schedules, the backlog is projected to reach 18 days within
the next 6 to 8 months. Furthermore, the productivity of employees on 10-hour
shifts is also diminished because they are without their immediate supervisor
for 2 hours each day. Regarding the use of sick leave, employees on the 10-hour
shift use an average of 23 percent more sick leave than employees on the 8-hour
shift who begin work at 0700 or 0800.(4) Essentially, the data establish that the
existing 4-10 CWS has caused a reduction in productivity, and that its
termination would improve timely delivery of customer services and reverse the
trend toward a growing backlog.
The Union would have the Panel find that the 4-10
CWS for four employees in the PMEL has not had an adverse agency impact. The
4-10 CWS is desirable because two employees have commuting distances of 150 and
400 miles, respectively. While they stay on the base during the week, the CWS
greatly improves their family life on the weekends. The Employer’s
productivity data are flawed because they do not take into account the practice
by some employees of taking much of the easy work, called "ducks," off
the shelves, leaving the more complex, time-consuming calibrations for others.
Without greater precision regarding the ratio of complex to simple assignments
per employee, the Employer’s figures compare apples to oranges. Regarding the
increase in the work backlog, it is directly related to the deleterious effect
of the June 1995 decision to rotate mechanical and electrical engineering work
assignments (see footnote 3) and to avoid overtime use beginning in October
1995; now, employees not only do their own work, but also must consult with
co-workers who have taken on their former assignments. In addition, the loss of
four laboratory employees who were riffed in January and March, 1995, is not
balanced by the elimination of one customer, the Pittsburgh AFB. Trends since
1992 show that loss of personnel is always associated with an increase in the
backlog. Finally, the Employer improperly blames the schedule for productivity
lags during periods when an immediate supervisor for one side of the laboratory
is not present; instead such problems should be attributed to ineffective
required to take final action in favor of the determination of the agency head
or, in this instance, that of his delegatee, to terminate the CWS if the finding
"adverse agency impact." The Act's legislative history clearly
indicates that the Employer bears the burden of proving adverse impact.(5)
the Employer has not met its statutory burden under the Act. Preliminarily, we
acknowledge that the Employer made a serious effort to assemble relevant data
from its performance management system to support its finding that a significant
decrease in productivity and increase in the backlog of work are related to the
4-10 CWS. In our view, however, the following deficiency raises credible doubts
about the reliability of the data. In this regard, the Employer does not explain
the methodology it applied in comparing the productivity figures for employees
on different schedules. Thus, it has failed to support persuasively the
statement in its chief supporting document that the "items of work are
distributed in complexity so that each group, 10-hour shift or 8-hour shift,
represents a cross section of equipment by complexity and time
requirements." Rather, our examination of the 12 sanitized records of
individual employees’ output that the Employer provides lends support to the
Union’s position that the work employees perform may be distributed unevenly.(6)
Moreover, while the Employer concludes that the rising backlog is attributable
to the 4-10 CWS, the evidence suggests that it is as likely to have occurred
because of the June 1995 rotation of employees’ work assignments and the
Employer’s October 1995 decision to avoid assigning overtime. Finally, both
parties admit that there are problems with employees’ lack of productivity
during the first and last hours of the day when an immediate supervisor is not
present. We are convinced that management has within its discretion alternative
ways of curing such problems other than the termination of the 4-10 CWS
schedule. In summary, we conclude that the evidence provided does not support
the Employer’s finding that the 4-10 CWS is causing an adverse agency impact,
and shall order the Employer to rescind its determination to terminate the 4-10
CWS in the PMEL.
§ 6131(c), the Federal Service Impasses Panel, under § 2472.12(b) of its
regulations, hereby orders the Employer to rescind its determination to
terminate the 4-10 CWS.
1.Under the 4-10 CWS, employees work four 10-hour days and have 1 permanently-assigned day off each week and under the 5-4/9 CWS, employees work eight 9-hour days, one 8-hour day, and have 1 day off every other week.
2.Under § 6131(b), "adverse agency impact" is defined as:
The burden of demonstrating that implementation of a proposed CWS is likely to cause an adverse agency impact or, as in this case, that an existing CWS has had an adverse agency impact, falls on an employer under the Act. In the instant case, the head of the agency, the Secretary of Defense, delegated the needed authority to make the requisite finding under the Act through the Secretary of the Air Force to the Commander of the installation. Air Force Instruction 36-102, February 18, 1994, and AFI 36-807/AFI Supplement, June 15, 1995, convey the delegation of authority.
3.In June 1995, the types of assignments given to employees were rotated; employees in the mechanical section were given electrical engineering tasks and those in the electrical section were given mechanical engineering tasks. Many employees had minimal recent experience in the new areas. For the period ending on November 8, 1995, the productivity of employees on 10-hour shifts, on average, fell by 7.77 items completed to 35.25; the productivity of employees on 8-hour shifts dropped, on average, by 4.72 items to 50.29. The aggregate revised data for employees on 10-hour shifts indicate that they are 30 percent less productive than employees on 8-hour shifts. 4.The Employer indicates that employees on 8-hour shifts who begin work at 0600 hours also use a larger percentage of sick leave.
5.See 128 CONG. REC. H3999 (daily ed. July 12, 1982)(statement of Rep. Ferraro); and 128 CONG. REC. S7641 (daily ed. June 30, 1982)(statement of Sen. Stevens).
6.These raw data list the number of completions in equipment categories J, F, and K: category J represents equipment involving codes which is the least difficult and least time consuming to work on; category F represents more complex operations involving functions; and category K represents equipment where trouble shooting is required.