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57 FLRA No. 110
AFGE, Local 2274 and U. S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, Aleda E. Lutz Medical Center Saginaw, Michigan (Knight, Arbitrator), 0-AR-3408 (Decided November 8, 2001)
The Arbitrator found that the Agency did not violate the parties' agreement when it noncompetitively reassigned an employee. Accordingly, he denied the Union's grievance. The Authority found that the Union failed to show that the award was deficient under § 7122(a) of the Statute.
Preliminarily, the Authority noted that under § 2429.5 of the its regulations, it will not consider issues that could have been, but were not, presented to the arbitrator. In this case, nothing in the record indicated that the issue of whether the employee's reassignment was contrary to 29 C.F.R. § 1614.203(g) was raised at arbitration. Thus, the Authority did not considered the Union's exception that the award was contrary to that regulation.
Additionally, the Authority concluded that the award was not contrary to merit promotion procedures, nor that it failed to draw its essence from the parties' agreement. Lastly, the Authority concluded that the Arbitrator provided a fair hearing.