FEDERAL MEDIATION AND CONCILIATION SERVICE ADVISORY OPINION AND AWARD
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* ISSUE: WAGE RATE * * |
AWARD DATE: SEPTEMBER
6, 2002 APPEARANCES FOR THE PARTIES UNION Arthur L. Fox, II,
Esq., Label, Novins & Lament, Washington, D.C. AGENCY PROCEDURAL HISTORY The Federal Aviation
Agency is hereinafter referred to as "Agency". The National Association of
Air Traffic Specialists is hereinafter referred to as "Union". An arbitration hearing was held in the headquarters of the FMCS in Washington, D.C. on July 30, 2002. During the course of the hearing both parties were afforded full opportunity for the presentation of evidence and oral argument. The Agency's and Union's final offers, submitted to the Board, appear as Appendices A and B to this Opinion and Award, respectively. The parties elected to file post-hearing briefs. The Board received timely filed briefs from both parties DISCUSSION The issue that the Agency and Union have asked this Board to advise relates to the proper pay for members of the bargaining unit. However, as indicated in the Procedural History, the parties have limited the Board to one of two responses, that is, recommendation of either -the Agency's or the Union's last offer. For the reasons set out below, this Board, as an instrumentality of the FMCS, does not recommend either of those proposals. The procedures under which the Agency and Union agreed to arbitrate the pay rates for members of the bargaining unit included a provision whereby the arbitration would proceed only if the parties had agreed to all the terms of the collective bargaining agreement other than wage rates. Recommendation and adoption of the Agency's wage proposal would undo issues that the parties have already agreed upon. Moreover, adoption of the Agency's last offer would result in execution of a collective bargaining agreement wherein the benefits to which covered employees would be entitled will be unclear at best. The Agency's last offer provides, among other things, that if the parties are unable to agree on "offsets", "the offsets will come from the elimination of holiday premium pay .., savings from a reduction in the hours of operation at certain flight service facilities, or such other sources as determined by the Agency." It is likely that adoption of this language would undo an agreement already reached regarding holiday premium pay and thereby violate the arbitration procedures noted above. It is certain that adoption of this proposal would result in a collective bargaining agreement wherein benefits would be unclear for some time and would be subject to unilateral amendment by the Agency for an indefinite period. Such an agreement flies in the face of decades of history of collective bargaining in the Federal sector and does not serve the public interest. Finally, the Agency's last offer is silent regarding retroactivity. Non-payment of retroactivity is inconsistent with the commitment the Agency made to the Union in the letter from Anthony Herman, Esq., counsel for the Agency, to Walter W, Pike, Union President, dated July 8, 1999. That letter provides in pertinent part:
The Union's last offer "proposes that its 2,185 bargaining unit employees in Flight Service should continue, as in the past, to earn wages that are comparable to the wages earned by other Air Traffic Controllers with comparable responsibilities and skill levels." Other evidence presented lo the Board shows that the Union's last offer is based on "linkage" to the wage rate provided for ATC level 6 Air Traffic Controllers under the collective bargaining agreement between the Agency and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), Thus the Union's proposal calls for raising "the salaries of all Flight Service personnel in its bargaining unit by 13.2 percent as follows: 4.2 percent, effective 10/1/99; 4.9 percent, effective 10/1/00; and 4,1 percent, effective 10/1/01." The Union's proposal is based on a foundation that is not supported by the evidence presented to the Board, that is, that the wages of Air Traffic Controllers covered by the FAA/NATCA agreement and members of the bargaining unit represented by the Union should be coupled. The Union is correct that employees represented by it had been paid at a rate identical to that paid GS-12 Air Traffic Controllers represented by NATCA for a number of years. But the fact is that GS wage rates no longer apply to Air Traffic Controllers represented by NATCA. Moreover, not all former GS-12 Air Traffic Controllers represented by NATCA are paid the same wage rate under the FAA/NATCA agreement. Rather, their wage rates are based on the work assigned. In addition, adoption of the Union's proposal for linkage would produce the anomalous result that NATCA would negotiate wage rates for members of the bargaining unit represented by the Union. ADVISORY AWARD For the reasons stated above the Board of Arbitration declines to recommend adoption of either the Agency's or the Union's last offer. The FMCS remains
available to assist the parties. |