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57 FLRA No. 4
United States Department of AgricultureAnimal And Plant Health Inspection ServicePlant Protection And Quarantine andNational Association of Agriculture Employees (Bernhart, Arbitrator), 0-AR-3307 (Decided March 14, 2001)
The Arbitrator sustained the grievances of four employees who claimed that they were entitled to temporary promotions. The Authority concluded that the Agency failed to establish that the award was deficient.
Preliminarily, the Authority noted that under § 2429.5 of its regulations, it will not consider issues that could have been, but were not, presented to the arbitrator. The Authority found no indication in the award or elsewhere in the record that the Agency argued before the Arbitrator, as it did in its exceptions, that the position description relied on by the Arbitrator was not in existence during the time frames the grievants claimed to have performed GS-11 work. The Authority noted that the Agency's argument could, and should, have been presented to the Arbitrator.
The Authority rejected the argument that the award failed to draw its essence from the agreement. The Authority also dismissed allegations regarding timeliness as a challenges to the procedural arbitrability of the case. It noted that an arbitrator's determination of the procedural arbitrability of a grievance may be found deficient only on grounds that do not challenge the determination of procedural arbitrability itself. Such grounds include arbitrator bias or the fact that the arbitrator exceeded his or her authority. Here, the Agency's contentions directly challenged the Arbitrator's determination of the procedural arbitrability of the grievance under the parties' agreement. Thus, the Authority concluded that this exception provided no basis for finding the award deficient.
Lastly, the Authority noted that an arbitrator is not bound by another arbitrator's award. In this regard, the Authority noted that it has found that arbitrators are required to exercise independent and impartial judgment on issues before them. However, arbitrators may consider reasoning and conclusions in other arbitration awards. Here, the Authority found that the Agency did not provide any basis to find that the Arbitrator failed to exercise independent and impartial judgment in making a determination regarding the validity of the grievances.