Court Opinion

ID: 9471220
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:27:08.852551+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:18.251542
License: Public Domain

FLAUM, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
The FLRA decided in this case that the changes in the IRS’s office space must be negotiated in light of the IRS’s failure to prove (1) that its choice of office space design has a technological relationship to accomplishing or furthering the performance of its work, and (2) that the NTEU’s proposals would interfere with the purpose for which the design was adopted. I join the majority opinion to the extent that it holds that the FLRA’s decision is inconsistent with the requirement of effective and efficient government.
Although a reviewing court must give deference to the statutory interpretation of an administrative agency, see Zenith Radio Corp. v. United States, 437 U.S. 443, 450, 98 S.Ct. 2441, 2445, 57 L.Ed.2d 337 (1977), a ruling by the FLRA cannot be arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law. Federal Service Labor-Management Statute, 5 U.S.C. § 706. Unlike the dissent, I do not find it necessary to determine whether the FLRA’s decision in this ease is arbitrary or capricious because I find that it is not in accordance with § 7101(b) of the Federal Service Labor-Management Statute, which states that the provisions of the statute should be interpreted in a manner consistent with effective and efficient government.
The IRS contends that government efficiency requires that a federal agency’s management must be free “to make essential decisions regarding the modification of workspace unencumbered by the bargaining obligation.” Appellant’s Reply Brief at 9. The FLRA, on the other hand, argues that Congress found that the effective conduct of public business is realized through collective bargaining. Appellee’s Brief at 34.
*1178Congress briefly addressed the meaning of effective and efficient government prior to the passage of the current Federal Service Labor-Management Statute. During one congressional debate regarding the management rights provision of the statute, Congressman William Ford cited with approval an interpretation of government efficiency that requires an agency to apply a balancing test when declaring a proposal non-negotiable. Such a test must weigh a substantial demonstration of increased costs and reduced effectiveness against such compensating benefits as potential for improved performance, increased productivity, and improved health and safety. 124 Cong. Rec. 29,198 (1978).
In the present case, the IRS’s increased costs and reduced effectiveness outweigh any compensating benefits. Prior to the reorganization of the IRS’s workspace, the employees in this workspace worked in “open space” areas. The changes instituted by the IRS maintained the open space design, but involved the creation of smaller spaces. The NTEU proposed that a search be undertaken to find new office space utilizing the concept of private offices or, in the alternative, that existing space be converted into private offices, a proposal that would involve the abandonment of the basic open space design. The IRS has indicated that bargaining with regard to office location and design would entail considerable cost. In addition, if bargaining over office location and design can be triggered by the addition of workers into existing office space, the effectiveness of the IRS in improving its operations would be reduced. Furthermore, it is unclear how bargaining over the NTEU’s proposals would lead to any significant improvement in performance, productivity, health, or safety. Neither the NTEU nor the FLRA contend that the open space design poses a health or safety hazard, or that private offices would lead to significantly greater performance than the performance achieved with the open space design. Thus, based on the limited facts that the IRS was only modifying an existing office design in an existing office space, and that the union was asking for a total change in design without any showing of potential improvement in performance or productivity, I find that any bargaining over the union’s proposals would have been inconsistent with the requirement of effective and efficient government. The FLRA’s decision was therefore not in accordance with § 7101(b) of the Federal Service Labor-Management Statute and for that reason should not be enforced.