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20 FLRA No. 17

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENT 
EMPLOYEES, LOCAL R1-100H 
Union

and 

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY 
NAVAL HOSPITAL, GROTON 
Agency

                                      Case No. 0-NG-1073

                DECISION AND ORDER ON NEGOTIABILITY ISSUE

   The petition for review in this case comes before the Authority
pursuant to section 7105(a)(2)(E) of the Federal Service
Labor-Management Relations Statute (the Statute) and presents an issue
concerning the negotiability of the following provision of a local
agreement disapproved by the Agency head pursuant to section 7114(c) of
the Statute.

         The Employer will post work schedules for shift employees in a
      conspicuous place in each Service at least four weeks prior to the
      effective date and they shall not be changed except in the case of
      an emergency at which time the Union will be notified.

   Upon careful consideration of the entire record, /1/ including the
parties' contentions, the Authority makes the following determinations.
The disputed provision in the instant case is to the same effect as
Provision 1 in American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO,
Local 2484 and U.S. Army Garrison, Fort Detrick, Maryland, 17 FLRA No.
106 (1985), petition for review filed sub nom. American Federation of
Government Employees, AFL-CIO, Local 2484 v. FLRA, No. 85-1405 (D.C.
Cir. July 3, 1985), which also would have prevented a change in tours of
duty unless advance notice of such change had been provided and which
the Authority found to be inconsistent with an applicable
Government-wide regulation.  In the cited case the Authority determined
that 5 CFR 610.121(b)(2)(1984) obligates an agency head to revise an
employee's administrative workweek to comport with the hours during
which the employee will actually be required to work "(w)hen the head of
an agency knows in advance of an administrative workweek" that such
revision is necessary.  Thus, the Authority concluded that as the
provision therein would prevent the agency head from revising an
employee's work schedule unless he or she became aware of the need to
change work schedules not less than two weeks prior to the rescheduling,
it was inconsistent with a Government-wide regulation and outside the
duty to bargain.  Therefore, based on U.S. Army Garrison, Fort Detrick,
since the instant provision would also, in certain circumstances,
prevent the Agency from complying with a Government-wide regulation, it
is likewise outside the duty to bargain pursuant to section 7117(a)(1)
of the Statute.

   Accordingly, pursuant to section 2424.10 of the Authority's Rules and
Regulations, IT IS ORDERED that the Union's petition for review be, and
it hereby is, dismissed.

   Issued, Washington, D.C., September 11, 1985
                                      (s) HENRY B. FRAZIER III
                                      Henry B. Frazier III, Acting
                                      Chairman
                                      (s) WILLIAM J. MCGINNIS, JR.,
                                      William J. McGinnis, Jr., Member
                                      FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY






--------------- FOOTNOTES$ ---------------


   /1/ The Union did not file a Reply Brief in this case. 

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