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59 FLRA No. 12
U. S. Dept. of the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio and AFGE, Local 1138, (Goldberg, Arbitrator) 0-AR-3647 (Decided September 2003)
The Authority found that the Arbitrator's award involved a classification determination precluded by § 7121(c)(5) of the Statute, granted the Agency's exceptions and set aside the award.
Initially, the Authority addressed the issue of whether the Agency's exceptions should be dismissed because they were interlocutory. In this regard, the Authority found that whether or not the exceptions were interlocutory, they were properly before the Authority. The Authority explained that this was because: (1) if the exceptions were not interlocutory, then resolution of the exceptions was required; and (2) if the exceptions were interlocutory, then they presented a plausible jurisdictional defect (inconsistency with § 7121(c)(5) of the Statute), the resolution which will advance the ultimate disposition of the case. Accordingly, it is unnecessary to determine, and we do not determine, whether the exceptions are interlocutory.
The Authority further noted that when the substance of a grievance concerns whether the grievant is entitled to a temporary promotion under a collective bargaining agreement by reason of having performed the duties of an established higher-graded position, the grievance does not concern the classification of a position within the meaning of § 7121(c)(5). However, when the duties of a position have not been previously classified, a grievance seeking a temporary promotion to that position concerns a classification matter within § 7121(c)(5). In such a grievance, a necessary predicate to determining whether the employee performed higher-graded duties would be to determine the classification of those duties.