[ v15 p855 ]
15:0855(161)CU
The decision of the Authority follows:
15 FLRA No. 161
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
AND HUMAN SERVICES, REGION VI
DALLAS, TEXAS
Activity
and
NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION AND
NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION, CHAPTER 219
Petitioner
Case No. 6-CU-30002
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
AND HUMAN SERVICES, REGION VI
DALLAS, TEXAS
Activity
and
NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION AND
NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION, CHAPTER 219
Petitioner
Case No. 6-CU-30003
DECISION AND ORDER CLARIFYING UNIT
Upon petitions duly filed with the Federal Labor Relations Authority
under section 7111(b)(2) of the Federal Service Labor-Management
Relations Statute (the Statute), a hearing was held before a hearing
officer of the Authority. The hearing officer's rulings made at the
hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon careful consideration of the entire record, including the
parties' contentions, the Authority finds: The National Treasury
Employees Union (NTEU) was certified as the exclusive bargaining
representative for separate units of all General Schedule (GS) and Wage
Grade (WG) employees and of all professional employees assigned to the
Regional Office, Region VI, Department of Health and Human Services with
duty station in Dallas, Texas. /1/ Essentially, the petition seeks to
clarify the bargaining unit status of the professional and
nonprofessional employees of the newly formed Region VI, Office of
Inspector General, Office of Health Financing Integrity (HFI). Many of
these employees had previously been included in the bargaining units
represented by NTEU. The Activity contends that the above employees
shall be excluded from their previous bargaining units on the grounds
that: Office of Inspector General employees have been traditionally
excluded from certified bargaining units; the employees involved herein
will be engaged in internal security functions within the meaning of
section 7112(b)(7) of the Statute; and there is no longer a community
of interest between the employees of the HFI and the rest of the
bargaining units.
On January 9, 1983, pursuant to a national reorganization in the
Department of Health and Human Services, 12 nonprofessional employees,
nine of whom were included in the bargaining unit represented by NTEU
and assigned to the Region VI Health Care Financing Administration
(HCFA), Division of Quality Control, were transferred to the HFI. On
March 1, 1983, the Inspector General of the Department of Health and
Human Services, following precedent established by the Secretary of
Health, Education and Welfare on December 5, 1977, stated that it was
his position that Office of Inspector General employees were excluded
from participation in collective bargaining activities by provisions of
the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. At the time of the hearing, there
were no Office of Inspector General employees in bargaining units
anywhere in the country.
This transfer resulted in a major change in the focus of the mission
and function of the employees involved herein. As employees of the
Division of Quality Control, they functioned in support of the HCFA by
monitoring health care contractors and subcontractors dealing with HCFA
to prevent any mismanagement or fraud; however, under the HFI, these
same employees, as agents of the Inspector General, oversee whether the
HCFA is properly performing its job, which would include participation
in internal investigations of wrongdoing and fraud. /2/ As the transfer
occurred only nine months prior to the hearing, these employees were
involved in cleaning up their old work as well as assuming their new
duties and several employees as yet have not begun to perform their new
functions. The transfer resulted in the establishment of a new chain of
command, whereupon the Regional Director, HFI, reports directly to the
head of HFI in the Inspector General Central Office structure in
Washington, rather than the head of the Division of Quality Control
reporting to the Regional Administrator for HCFA. Further, the
employees involved herein are now included in the Inspector General's
separate areas of competition for job promotion as well as
reduction-in-force. Although these employees were previously serviced
by the Regional Personnel Office, as were the other employees in Region
VI, as of October 1, 1983, all employees of the Inspector General are
serviced by the Office of Secretary of Personnel. Pursuant to the
record, on September 23, 1983, HFI employees were to be moved from their
present work station into a new building along with the other components
of the Office of Inspector General.
Under the circumstances outlined above, the Authority finds that the
employees of HFI, following the reorganization, no longer share a
community of interest with the other employees of the two bargaining
units involved herein which are represented by NTEU. In this regard,
noted particularly is the fact that the HFI employees are now a part of
a new organization with a separate and distinct mission; they are under
separate overall supervision and authority; and they share an area of
competition for promotion and reduction-in-force separate from that of
the employees in the existing bargaining units. Based on the foregoing,
the Authority finds that the HFI employees constitute a functionally
distinct group of employees who share a community of interest separate
and distinct from the employees in the existing bargaining units and
their continued inclusion in the existing units would not promote
effective dealing or efficiency of agency operations. Accordingly, the
Authority shall order that the certifications for the NTEU bargaining
units involved herein be clarified to exclude the HFI employees. /3/
ORDER
IT IS ORDERED that the units sought to be clarified in Case Nos.
6-CU-30002 and 6-CU-30003 be, and they are, clarified by excluding from
said units the employees of the Region VI Office of Inspector General,
Office of Health Financing Integrity.
Issued, Washington, D.C., August 30, 1984
Barbara J. Mahone, Chairman
Ronald W. Haughton, Member
Henry B. Frazier III, Member
FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY
--------------- FOOTNOTES$ ---------------
/1/ The National Treasury Employees Union, Chapter 219, serves as the
agent of NTEU for the two units involved herein.
/2/ The record indicates that HFI will be performing investigation of
employee wrongdoing within HCFA. At the time of the hearing, however,
no such investigations had been performed primarily because the HFI
employees had not received the required training for this task. The
record further indicates that such training was scheduled for the very
near future.
/3/ See United States Department of the Navy, Navy Avionics Center,
Indianapolis, Indiana, 11 FLRA No. 98 (1983) and Department of the Navy,
Navy Regional Data Automation Center, Jacksonville, Florida, 4 FLRA 107
(1980).