Arbitration

The Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute provides for arbitration as the final step in the grievance process. Arbitration is a proceeding in which an impartial third party, usually chosen by the parties to a dispute, hears both sides, reviews evidence, and renders a final and binding award.

An arbitration hearing is similar to a court proceeding however, it is informal. Its purpose is to enable the arbitrator to learn all the relevant facts of the case through interrogation of both sides. Each party selects its own representative - generally, the agency's representative is a member of the Civilian Personnel Flight staff or a legal counselor from the Judge Advocate's Office, and the union's representative is one of its local officers or a national representative.

As a supervisor who is involved in a grievance that goes to arbitration, you may be called as a witness. Your testimony will be important to the agency in convincing the arbitrator that the action taken by management was proper.

Both management and the union attempt to avoid arbitration because it is costly and, the outcome is oftentimes unpredictable - both sides may end up dissatisfied with the binding award.