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57 FLRA No. 125
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and American Federation of Government Employees, Local 3911 (Hoffman, Arbitrator) 0-AR-3402 (Decided December 14, 2001)
The Arbitrator upheld a grievance concerning the timeliness of the grievant's performance appraisal. After finding that any remedies personal to the grievant were moot, the Arbitrator ordered the Agency to post a notice in certain of its offices for 60 days and to cease and desist from engaging in certain behavior. The Authority found the award deficient.
The Authority noted that arbitrators exceed their authority when they fail to resolve an issue submitted to arbitration, resolve an issue not submitted to arbitration, disregard specific limitations on their authority or award relief to those not encompassed within the grievance. Furthermore, an arbitrator exceeds his authority in connection with a remedy where the arbitrator awards relief to persons who did not file a grievance on their own behalf and did not have the union file a grievance for them. Applying this standard, the Authority noted that it has consistently held that if a grievance is limited to a particular grievant, then the remedy must be similarly limited.
The parties here submitted to the Arbitrator the issue of whether the Agency violated the agreement in its actions towards one employee. In his award, the Arbitrator, defined the contractual rights of additional bargaining unit employees who were not a part of the issue submitted to him. The award, therefore, went beyond the scope of the stipulated issue by defining the rights of employees who were not a part of the issue submitted to the Arbitrator. By so doing, the Arbitrator exceeded his authority.