The Internal Revenue Service this week appealed an arbitrator's order instructing the agency to expand the scope of bargaining with its employee union.
Last month, arbitrator Roger P. Kaplan ruled that the IRS had agreed to bargain over so-called "permissive" issues in a signed agreement with the National Treasury Employees Union. The IRS filed an appeal of the arbitrator's decision with the Federal Labor Relations Authority on Monday.
According to an IRS statement, the agency believes "the arbitrator exceeded his authority and misapplied the facts and that his decision was inconsistent with the law."
The dispute concerns section 7106(b)(1) of Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, which lays out "management rights"-issues that agencies can choose to bargain over at their discretion. The so-called (b)(1), or "permissive," issues are listed as "the numbers, types, and grades of employees or positions assigned to any organizational subdivision, work project, or tour of duty, or on the technology, methods and means of performing work."
In 1993, President Clinton issued an executive order requiring agencies to bargain over permissive issues. Subsequently, the IRS re-drafted its partnership agreement with the National Treasury Employees Union. The new agreement said that all levels of the IRS should be held "responsible for negotiating over the subjects set forth" in section 7106(b)(1).
In his March 22 decision, Kaplan ordered the IRS to follow through with its agreement and bargain over (b)(1) issues.
A spokesman for the National Treasury Employees Union said the union believes the Federal Labor Relations Authority will uphold the arbitrator's decision.
"The merits of the case will stand on their own," he said.
NTEU is also taking a case on permissive bargaining to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. On May 11, NTEU will present oral arguments in a case involving the Patent and Trademark Office. In that case, the Federal Labor Relations Authority ruled that FLRA had no authority to enforce President Clinton's executive order on permissive bargaining.
The Clinton administration has been circulating a draft memorandum that would require agency heads to sign a pledge to bargain over (b)(1) issues.