Opinion ID: 523229
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Exclusivity of CSRA.

Text: 9 While plaintiffs base their suit on a state cause of action, we cannot ignore the panoramic federal scheme for regulating federal employee relations. We view Congress' deliberate consignment to an independent board, the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), of claims arising under the federal-sector labor statute as relevant to, though not necessarily controlling, the determination whether Congress intended to preempt state-law malpractice claims under the circumstances of this case. The pertinent federal enactment, Title VII of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA), 5 U.S.C. Sec. 7101 et seq., is an important component of the legislation which comprehensively overhauled the federal civil service. Lindahl v. OPM, 470 U.S. 768, 773, 105 S.Ct. 1620, 1624, 84 L.Ed.2d 674 (1985). Title VII allowed collective bargaining in the public sector and provided detailed methodologies for dispute resolution. See, e.g., 5 U.S.C. Secs. 7116(d), 7121, 7122. The statute created the FLRA and vested it with responsibility for, inter alia, supervising the collective bargaining process, promulgating administrative rules for federal labor relations, and adjudicating disputes over such matters as negotiability, bargaining units, arbitration, and representation elections. See 5 U.S.C. Secs. 7104, 7105(a)(1), 7105(a)(2)(A)-(I); see also Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms v. FLRA, 464 U.S. 89, 92-93, 104 S.Ct. 439, 441-42, 78 L.Ed.2d 195 (1983). In short, CSRA contains within its four corners an elaborate remedial system that has been constructed step by step, with careful attention to conflicting policy considerations. Bush v. Lucas, 462 U.S. 367, 388, 103 S.Ct. 2404, 2417, 76 L.Ed.2d 648 (1983). 10 Under the rules of that system, judicial oversight is both prescribed and proscribed, Tucker v. Defense Mapping Agency, 607 F.Supp. 1232, 1238 (D.R.I.1985), and the district courts are largely omitted from the equation. Id. at 1238-39. Specifically, Title VII limits the federal judiciary's role to three instances: an aggrieved party may request review of final FLRA orders in the courts of appeals; the FLRA may petition a court of appeals for enforcement of its orders; and the FLRA may seek an injunction in district court after issuing a complaint. 5 U.S.C. Sec. 7123; see also Karahalios v. National Federation of Federal Employees, Local 1263, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 1282, 1286, 103 L.Ed.2d 539 (1989); Columbia Power Trades Council v. United States Dept. of Energy, 671 F.2d 325, 327 (9th Cir.1982). 11 Because Congress constructed an integrated scheme of administrative and judicial review, United States v. Fausto, 484 U.S. 439, 108 S.Ct. 668, 672, 98 L.Ed.2d 830 (1988), the Court--mindful that private rights of action should not be allowed free rein where there is a realistic threat of interference with the federal regulatory scheme--has jealously guarded CSRA against inconcinnous judicial incursions. For example, the Court has held that CSRA's comprehensive system for reviewing personnel action taken against federal employees bars a federal worker from suing for backpay on the ground that he was wrongly suspended. Fausto, 108 S.Ct. at 677. By the same token, the statute's elaborate, comprehensive scheme ... by which improper action may be redressed prohibits a federal employee from bringing a damages action against his superior premised on alleged abridgment of first amendment rights in the workplace. Bush, 462 U.S. at 385-90, 103 S.Ct. at 2414-18. The circuits have been equally as forthcoming; in a variety of settings, they have followed the Court's lead and treated CSRA as establishing the sole mechanism for resolving labor conflicts in the federal arena. See, e.g., Spagnola v. Mathis, 859 F.2d 223, 228-29 (D.C.Cir.1988) (CSRA precludes Bivens action premised on conduct amounting to prohibited personnel practice); Warren v. Local 1759, American Federation of Government Employees, 764 F.2d 1395, 1399 (11th Cir.) (FLRA possesses exclusive jurisdiction over federal employee's unfair representation claim), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1006, 106 S.Ct. 527, 88 L.Ed.2d 459 (1985); Columbia Power Trades, 671 F.2d at 327 (FLRA has exclusive jurisdiction over federal labor relations matters). 12 Most recently, the Supreme Court has ruled that district courts cannot entertain a federal employee's damages action against his union for an ostensible breach of the union's duty of fair representation. Karahalios, 109 S.Ct. at 1287. The Court refused to imply a private cause of action from CSRA's fair representation provision, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 7114(a)(1), reasoning that such suits would seriously undermine what we deem to be the congressional scheme, namely to leave the enforcement of union and agency duties under the Act to ... the FLRA and to confine the courts to the role given them under the Act. Karahalios, 109 S.Ct. at 1288. Karahalios, it would seem, is an ominous portent for the present plaintiffs: they could not have sued PATCO in federal court for the poor advice they received; that would have been a fair representation claim, and barred. It would, therefore, be incongruous to allow pursuit of those very claims against those who implemented the union's course of action. 13 The same result obtains once it is recognized that the complaint's allegations amount au fond to unfair labor practice charges. Compare 5 U.S.C. Sec. 7116(b) (it shall be an unfair labor practice for a labor organization.... (7)(A) to call, or participate in, a strike, work stoppage, or slowdown ... or (B) to condone any [such] activity ... by failing to take action to prevent or stop [it]). Congress meant to vest the FLRA with exclusive and final authority to issue unfair labor practice complaints, limiting opportunities for judicial review to those delineated in 5 U.S.C. Sec. 7123. Karahalios, 109 S.Ct. at 1287 (citing legislative history); Clark v. Mark, 590 F.Supp. 1, 8 (N.D.N.Y.1980) (claims which are arguable unfair labor practices ... must be dismissed as pre-empted under [CSRA].); cf. San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon, 359 U.S. 236, 244, 79 S.Ct. 773, 779, 3 L.Ed.2d 775 (1959) (when activities which a State purports to regulate ... constitute an unfair labor practice under [the NLRA], due regard for the federal enactment requires that state jurisdiction must yield). That appellants chose not to couch their complaint as an unfair labor practice cuts no mustard. Where labor-law preemption is an issue, creative labelling cannot carry the day. Rather, the needed reconnaissance focuses upon the conduct being regulated, not the formal description of governing legal standards.... Amalgamated Ass'n of Street, Electric Ry. & Motor Coach Employees v. Lockridge, 403 U.S. 274, 292, 91 S.Ct. 1909, 1920, 29 L.Ed.2d 473 (1971); see also Columbia Power Trades, 671 F.2d at 329 (FLRA's exclusive jurisdiction cannot be thwarted by party's characterization of lawsuit). 14