Opinion ID: 580690
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Same Issues and Interests

Text: 7 The petitioners assert that the issues and interests raised by the ULP charge and the grievance in this case are not the same because the ULP charge challenged the propriety of a proposed suspension while the grievance challenged the propriety of a final suspension. A challenge to a proposed suspension, say the petitioners, is aimed at preventing or mitigating a potential harm to an employee, while a challenge to an actual suspension ... is aimed at the validity of management's decision that the employee's conduct has indeed warranted the serving of a suspension. 8 We agree with the Authority that this difference is irrelevant to the purpose of § 7116(d), which is to preclude duplicative proceedings by requiring an aggrieved party to make an election of remedies. Regardless of whether a challenge occurs prior to or after the suspension, there can be no doubt that the same facts and the same decision are involved. Thus, to allow Owens' later-filed grievance based upon a distinction between proposed and actual agency action would drain § 7116(d) of much of its utility. 9 Our holding on this point is fully consistent with our decision in Overseas Education Association v. FLRA (OEA), 824 F.2d 61 (D.C.Cir.1987). (Indeed, the petitioners do not argue the contrary.) In that case, we held that an ULP charge alleging that agency management discriminatorily proposed to eliminate a position held by a union official did not bar a later-filed grievance protesting the union official's notice of dismissal. OEA does not depend upon the distinction proffered here between proposed and actual agency action. Instead, as we noted in that case, the ULP and the grievance were based upon different factual and legal predicates: Whereas in late 1981 [when the ULP charge was filed] the agency was only eliminating a particular position at one high school in the vast [DOD school] system, by early 1982 [when the grievance was filed] the employee was facing the prospect of outright termination. 824 F.2d at 72. Thus the court evidently understood the ULP charge to address a mere transfer of the employee, while the grievance addressed dismissal. Moreover, the ULP charge in OEA alleged a violation of § 7116(a), while the grievance claimed a breach of the collective bargaining agreement. Id. By contrast, the ULP charge and the grievance in this case rest upon the same factual predicate--namely, that Owens did nothing to warrant her suspension--and allege the same statutory and contractual violations. 10 The petitioners also argue that the ULP charge and the grievance serve to protect different interests. Thus, the ULP charge was filed in order to combat a feared 'chilling effect'  that Owens' suspension might have upon union participation, while the grievance was filed in order to protect Owens' individual interest. In support of their claim that this difference between the interests involved is relevant to the purpose of § 7116(d), the petitioners cite a footnote in Cornelius v. Nutt, 472 U.S. 648, 665 n. 20, 105 S.Ct. 2882, 2892 n. 20, 86 L.Ed.2d 515 (1985), where the Court states: 11 [Section 7116(d) ] does not preclude a union in its institutional capacity as an aggrieved party from filing an unfair labor practice charge to enforce its own independent rights merely because an employee has initiated an appeal or grievance ... based on the same factual situation to enforce his individual rights. 12 The distinction drawn in Cornelius is inapposite to this case. The ULP charge alleged harms both to the Union and to Owens. Thus, it does not trample the Union's interest to bar a later-filed grievance seeking to vindicate only Owens' individual interest. Because that interest was already advanced in the ULP charge, the Authority properly precluded Owens' grievance under § 7116(d).