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57 FLRA No. 135
U.S. Dept. of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Federal Detention Center Miami, Florida and AFGE, Local 501 (Ferguson, Arbitrator), 0-AR-3389 (Decided January 15, 2002)
The Arbitrator found that the Agency violated the parties' collective bargaining agreement by suspending the grievant for 14 days without just cause. To remedy the violation, the Arbitrator ordered, among other things, that the Agency reinstate the grievant, who had been removed from his position subsequent to the 14-day suspension. The Authority concluded that the portion of the award reinstating the grievant was deficient and set it aside.
Preliminarily, the Authority concluded that it had jurisdiction to resolve the Agency's exceptions. The Authority noted that even though the Arbitrator in this case ordered the grievant to be reinstated, the claim at arbitration concerned the grievant's 14-day suspension, not the removal. The Authority stated that 14-day suspension is not a matter that is appealable to the MSPB and reviewable by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. As such, the award was reviewable by the Authority pursuant to § 7122(a) of the Statute, irrespective of the Arbitrator's order that the grievant be reinstated.
However, the Authority found that the portion of the award ordering the grievant to be reinstated was deficient. It found that the remedy of reinstatement did not reflect a reconstruction of what management would have done had it not violated Article 30 of the parties' agreement. Consequently, the award was contrary to the Agency's right to discipline.