XIII. Group 13. Technical Libraries

M41a. Where there are technical libraries, they will be located proximate to the bargaining unit professionals they are intended to serve.

41b. A joint labor/management committee will be formed within three months of lease award and will recommend the location and organization of the technical libraries within six months of its formation.

XIV. Group 14: Parking

M46ax. For up to 3500 parking spaces, any bargaining unit professional who has a parking permit assigned through the Office of Administrative Services at the time of initial relocation to the consolidated facility shall be guaranteed a parking space at the consolidated facility. A parking agreement regarding after working hours and weekend parking, availability of hourly and daily parking, and allocation of any parking spaces in excess of 3500, if available, will be partnered and/or negotiated commencing within one year of award of the lease for the consolidated facility. 

46g. Bargaining unit professionals hired after moving to the new building will be eligible for parking through an agency wide waiting list.

 

PLBO 46(a). Except for PTO parking spaces required to be set aside by government-wide regulations on parking, the PTO shall assign a parking permit at the consolidated facility to every bargaining unit professional who has a parking permit assigned through the Office of Administrative Services or its equivalent at the time of initial relocation to the consolidated facility.

PLBO 46 (b). Bargaining unit professionals moving from Crystal City to the consolidated facility shall, after the needs of existing parking permit holders at the Crystal City location have been met pursuant to subsection 46(a), be offered any excess parking spaces on the basis of seniority in the PTO in an equitable manner with other PTO employees.

PLBO 46(c). All bargaining unit professionals will have access to parking at the consolidated facility after 6 PM and before 6 AM on weekdays and at all hours on weekends and federal holidays.

PLBO 46(d). All parking areas and walkways to and from parking provided for bargaining unit professionals shall have a personal emergency safety notification system.

PLBO 46(e). A reasonable number of temporary parking spaces (i.e. hourly and daily) will be available for bargaining unit professionals for use during weekdays between 6 AM and 6 PM.

PLBO 46 (f). There will be environmentally enclosed walkways between all parking facilities provided for bargaining unit professionals and buildings housing bargaining unit professionals.

PLBO 46(g). Bargaining unit professionals hired after moving to the consolidated facility and bargaining unit professionals whose parking needs have not been met will be eligible for parking through an agency wide waiting list for which bargaining unit professionals will be eligible for parking on a first come first served basis.

CONCLUSIONS

    The Union strongly argues in support of its proposals that management's proposals will leave it without a viable opportunity to bargain over important aspects of parking in the new consolidated facility and that these issues must, therefore, be addressed now.

    Embedded in this argument are many assumptions that it has not adequately supported. One is that the POR that has to be delivered to the bidders at the end of this proceeding allows stipulations as to parking areas and policies. GSA correspondence refers to the POR covering interior spaces. Management maintains without contradiction that it does not have a legal mechanism to force the building owner to provide items proposed by the Union (a security system, environmentally enclosed walkways). Thus the Union has not substantiated its assumption that as future occupant of a privately owned building leased by GSA, PTO can write into the POR the kind of specifications for parking facilities that are contained in the Union's proposals. Nevertheless the Union seeks to have the Employer ordered to provide parking according to these specifications.

    The Arbitrator does not agree that this is the Union's only realistic chance to negotiate over parking. The opportunity for bargaining contained in management's proposal protects the Union's interest in addressing serious issues of safety and access to the extent of management's authority in these areas as it has been established in this record. Once the configuration of workspace and parking is known with certainty (the lease date), security and access issues will also be much clearer and based on fact, not speculation. There will be ample opportunity to negotiate criteria (like seniority) for allocating spaces exceeding current permit-holders well before building occupancy.

    Another area of concern about the Union's proposals relates to their impact on other, non-bargaining unit employees. Leaving aside the issue of negotiability, this is a relevant consideration on the appropriateness of adopting the Union's proposals on their merits. While the Union repeatedly maintains that it desires only a "proportional" share of parking should the supply of spaces (3,500) not meet demand (not a likely, but a possible scenario), that is not the import of its language in 46(a). On its face that language would require PTO to provide permits to all unit members holding permits regardless of the relationship between the size of the unit and the number of available spaces. A comparison with the language in the Library of Congress case it includes with its arguments is instructive -- the Library union's proposal was plainly proportional, asking for spaces according to a ratio reflecting the percentage of the workforce represented by the bargaining unit. This is not the formulation used here.

XV. Group 15. Union Facilities and Equipment

M49a. POPA will be provided with an approximately 450 square foot interior union office.

M49c. The POPA office will also include office furniture including a table, desk and desk chair, a telephone and a computer linked to the PTO data network.

M49f. A goal of allocating space at the consolidated facility will be to place the POPA office so that it is centrally located to bargaining unit professionals.

M49g. The PTO shall provide POPA's office with standard level buildout.

M49d. The POPA office will be identified on directories in the lobby of each building.

132. POPA shall have equal access to meeting and conference rooms in patent examining space on the same basis as any other employee group or organization in the PTO and POPA shall have access to use of auditorium and cafeteria space on the same basis as any other employee group or organization in the PTO.

XVI. Group 16. Carpeting, Painting, Furnishing, etc.

a. The Employer's Proposal:

M64a. All painted surfaces in bargaining unit professionals' offices shall be repainted every five years. The schedule of such repainting shall be discussed in the quarterly meetings to be held between the Office of Administrative Services and the unions.

M65a. A joint committee with three representatives each from all three bargaining units and management will be established to recommend three color schemes to be used on alternate floors in the facility for paint, carpet and trim for all private offices and common areas on given floors. There will be a maximum of three color choices in the facility and one color choice per floor. This committee will report to the Commissioner within 30 days after its first meeting with its recommendation. After reporting, the committee will be disbanded.

b. The Union's Proposal:

PLBO 65a. All painted surfaces in bargaining unit professionals' offices shall be repainted every five years subject to the following:

Professionals who are entitled to a private, single occupancy office may refuse painting, except in those rare instances in which the office is so dingy that painting is necessary to maintain an appropriate public image for the PTO. Such dingy offices will be repainted.

PLBO 65b. The PTO will use best efforts to paint rooms at times of organizational moves, so that a professional moving into a room previously used by another will have a freshly painted room. And the painting can be accomplished without an extra pack and unpack cycle. Rooms that look clean need not be repainted.

PLBO 65c. The schedule of painting shall be discussed between the parties to avoid disruptions at times needed for concentration on productivity.

M65 a. Same as above in Management proposal.

CONCLUSIONS

    PTO's lease will require the landlord to paint all offices every 5 years at the landlord's cost. The Union's proposal would shift much office painting out of this cycle and this unscheduled painting cost would be absorbed by PTO. The interests asserted by the Union are productivity and the desire of the Patent Examiners to not be unnecessarily disturbed and distracted from their work. Individualizing a policy like office painting is understandably preferable from the employee's point of view but the question is whether the advantage gained justifies an otherwise unnecessary taxpayer cost. While there is a hidden cost from the disruption of work caused by office painting this is difficult to quantify, while the expense of money and administration time for staggered painting of hundreds of offices is plain. No example of how this has successfully worked in a unit of comparable size has been offered.

    The Employer agrees to a consultative process on scheduling of painting that gives the Union input into scheduling to ameliorate disruption. Considering the balance of interests, including those of the public, the Employer's proposal is adopted.

XVII. Group 17. Timing of Construction/Maintenance Work

a. The Employer's Proposal:

M67. After initial occupancy, to the extent practicable, maintenance, painting and construction will be performed at night or off duty hours. When painting or other fume generating maintenance is performed, the applicable 10,000 OSF HVAC zone will be appropriately ventilated to remove the fumes from the buildings.

127. To the extent commercially practicable, bargaining unit professionals' offices will be cleaned without the use of organic solvents.

128. Telephone lines and computer hookups shall be installed prior to occupancy of bargaining unit professional offices.

b. The Union's Proposal:

127. Same as above.

128. Same as above.

67a. To the extent possible, maintenance, painting and construction will be performed at night or off duty hours. This will not be deemed to be possible during initial occupancy and construction of a building.

67b. Whenever painting or other fume generating maintenance is performed, the applicable 10,000 OSF HVAC zone will be appropriately ventilated to remove the fumes from the building.

67c. Whenever construction or maintenance is performed which generates loud noise, bargaining unit professionals will be encouraged to record the time which they have lost due to the noise disturbance accurately. There will be no arbitrary uniform rules about the amount of time that a professional has lost due to the noise disturbance.

CONCLUSIONS

    There is little substantive difference in these proposals.

    The Employer's objection to the Union's formulation of proposal 67 is the wording "whenever possible." However, the Union has disavowed any intention of this being a more stringent standard than management's term "to the extent practicable."

    The other difference concerns Union 67c. Contrary to management's suggestions, the Union's wording does not go beyond encouraging the recording of lost time to prescribe what a supervisor's response is to be to what the employee records. Nothing in the plain words creates any right or benefit but there is a salutary acknowledgment of the potential impact on employees of working in a building still under construction.

    Consequently, the Union's proposal is adopted.

XVIII and XIX. Groups 18 and 19 are omitted since no disputed issues remain.

XX. Group 20. Employee Complaints

M135. Bargaining unit professionals shall be given an organization, telephone number and an E-mail address through which they can lodge any complaint concerning their physical work environment. These complaints will be responded to as soon as practicable. A record shall be kept of the complaint, time of complaint, corrective action, if any, and time of corrective action; and these records shall be available for review and copying by the Union. Management will meet with employee unions on a quarterly basis to discuss the foregoing.

XXI. Group 21. Items Reserved Without Prejudice

111. Flat panel displays of comparable or greater size and resolution as our current monitors will be provided in lieu of the existing cathode ray tube displays in order to save space and energy. 136. Yearly, management will provide the Union by October 1 with current floor plans for the facility which will indicate the size and use of each room or space, and the occupant(s), grade, job title and bargaining unit status for private offices.

36. Since no space has been designated for housing search rooms and examiners will have to supply copies of patents, each bargaining unit professional shall have a desk top printer capable of printing patents from all desk top computer search tools. The printer will be capable of holding a ream of paper and will print at a rate of at least 20 pages per minute.

38. The results of negotiations on the elimination of the paper search files and the implementation of an automated replacement system will be incorporated herein to the extent they impact the space and/or layout of a new consolidated facility. After the completion of an agreement resulting from the negotiations on elimination of the paper search files, a joint committee will be formed to determine the impact of that agreement, if any, and to make any necessary modifications to this agreement. If the joint committee is unable to reach agreement in partnership, then the parties will reenter negotiations to resolve any remaining issues.

57. All pantries in buildings housing bargaining unit professionals shall include one glass enclosed, lockable bulletin board for POPA notices.

130. The Agency shall provide the Union with two lockable bulletin boards and keys for each bank of elevators on each floor occupied by any bargaining unit professionals. To the extent possible, the Union shall make the determination as to the location of the bulletin boards prior to occupancy. A preferred location for the bulletin boards would be an easily readable height on the elevator facade.

131. The agency shall provide the Union with a standard size bulletin board in each printer and each copier room used by bargaining unit professionals.

43. Each bargaining unit professional's office will be provided with a permanently secured lockable storage unit having a size no smaller that 6 cubic feet.

109. When a bargaining unit professional is assigned to a different office, he/she will be permitted to take his/her office furniture and computer equipment to the new office.

110. If the Agency determines that new furniture will be purchased for bargaining unit professionals, a joint labor/management committee will be established to determine choice of and distribution of new furniture. If the committee can not reach agreement in partnership, then the parties will enter into negotiations on this topic.

137. a. Furniture for bargaining unit professionals will be chosen through a joint labor/management partnership committee.

b. The funds made available for each bargaining unit professional's furniture will be the same as those allotted for furniture for each first line supervisor (SPEs and SPCs).

c. If agreement can not be reached in partnership, then the parties will enter negotiations over the topic of furniture for bargaining unit professionals.

102. Because the Space Allocation Plan does not provide for paper search files, it is expected that the number of hours examiners spend at the computer keyboard will increase dramatically. Therefore, a joint management union committee will be formed to determine a choice of three ergonomic keyboards and three ergonomic mice to be offered to each bargaining unit professional.

103. Because the Space Allocation Plan does not provide for paper search files, it is expected that the number of hours examiners spend at the computer keyboard will increase dramatically. Each bargaining unit professional will be offered an ergonomic foot support in order to increase their comfort at the computer.

104. In order to avoid repetitive stress injuries from typing, voice activated software will be provided for all electronic patent examining tasks.

69. a. Time for installation of equipment, during equipment failure, to repair equipment, for training, and for other program related activities, when these conditions and activities occur during the employee's normal working hours, will be accounted for and recorded separately.

b. Management shall track for use in performance appraisal the time for installation of equipment, during equipment failure, to repair equipment, for training, and for other program related activities, when these conditions and activities occur during the employee's normal working hours and hinder the employee in performing his duties.

15. As long as the provisions of proposal 2a. are maintained, meeting rooms (or the equivalent) may be provided.

16. All bargaining unit professionals will have use of and shall be eligible to reserve all meeting rooms and conference rooms within their technology center (or the equivalent) and to any general purpose meeting spaces including large meeting rooms if provided.

17. a. The Office will provide and maintain "Schedule Plus" or equivalent software for the purpose of reserving meeting rooms or conference rooms.

b. Bargaining unit professionals will not be required to explain their intended use of the meeting room and may not be "bumped" by later scheduled meetings.

105. Half of each art unit meeting room will be partitioned into storage areas for the examiners in the art unit. Appropriate storage furniture will be provided.

DECISION

1. Group 1. Future Bargaining and Continuation of Past Practice: The parties shall adopt the Union's proposal, with the last sentence moved to be the third sentence.

2. Group 2. Office Space: The language ordered is that provided in the body of the decision.

3. Group 3. Information Necessary to Enforce Agreement: The language ordered is that provided in the body of the decision.

4. Group 4. Window Space: The parties shall adopt the Employer's proposals.

5. Group 5. Lighting: The language ordered is that provided in the body of the decision.

6. Group 6. Locks and Access: The language ordered is that provided in the body of the decision.

7. Group 7. Sight Lines: The language ordered is that provided in the body of the decision.

9. Group 10. Health and Safety Issues (including air quality, HVAC, contaminants, emergency): The language ordered is that provided in the body of the decision.

10. Group 13. Technical Libraries: The language ordered is that provided in the body of the decision.

11. Group 14. Parking: The parties shall adopt the Employer's proposal.

12. Group 15. Union Facilities and Equipment: The language ordered is that provided in the body of the decision.

14. Group 17 The Timing of Construction/Maintenance Work: The parties shall adopt the Union's proposal.

16. Group 21. Items Reserved Without Prejudice: The language ordered is that provided in the body of the decision.

Arbitrator

March 29, 1999

Takoma Park, Maryland

1.It is noted that prior to the start of the mediation-arbitration, the undersigned modified the packages of proposals that were outlined in the Panel’s letter of February 4, 1999, and there were further modifications during the proceeding and thereafter during the parties’ negotiations. The parties have also in some instances assigned new reference numbers to their last, best offer proposals. Where that is the case the original proposal numbers are given in parentheses. It will also be evident that packages/groups include fewer proposals after the mediation and negotiation process, in part because about 20 Union proposals have been, by agreement, placed in the category of “Items Reserved Without Prejudice,” a new package/group 21, and in some instances by consolidating proposals. In addition, a number of groups have been omitted because no disputed proposals remain in those groups.