Section 1. The Parties agree that no employee should be discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation.

Section 2. The Parties further agree that any employee who wishes to raise a complaint of discrimination based on sexual orientation may do so under the Parties' negotiated grievance procedure, or through the Department of Transportation's Procedure for Complaints of Discrimination Based on sexual Orientation, but may not use both procedures for the same complaint.

Section 3. Complaint Procedure: An employee who chooses to make a complaint of discrimination based on sexual orientation under the DOT's Complaint Procedure shall do so within the 45-day time frame specified in Paragraph 8B of the Complaint Procedure. An employee who makes this election must exhaust that Procedure, up to and including the Final Agency Decision. If the employee is not satisfied with that Decision, the Union, at the national level, reserves the right to file a grievance on behalf of the employee, under Article 67, Section 67-09 of the NAATS/FAA Agreement.

Section 4. Grievance Procedure: An employee who chooses to pursue a complaint of discrimination based on sexual orientation under the grievance procedure shall file the grievance in accordance with Article 67, Section 67-08 of the NAATS/FAA Agreement. However, after doing so, the employee may elect instead to invoke the DOT's Complaint Procedure by contacting an EEO Counselor within 45 days of the alleged discriminatory event, or of the time the employee may have reasonably been expected to have learned of the event. In this case, the employee's grievance will be null and void.

Date: 4/5/99