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57 FLRA No. 192
U. S . Dept of The Navy Naval Weapons Station, Yorktown, Virginia and NAGE,, Local R4-1 (Youngblood, Arbitrator), 0-AR-3478 (Decided June 27, 2002
The Arbitrator sustained a grievance alleging that the Agency violated the parties' collective bargaining agreement and a prior settlement agreement by failing to afford four grievants prior consideration in the filling of a Materials Handling Inspector Supervisor I, WS-6907-09 vacancy.As a remedy, the Arbitrator directed the Agency to select one of the four grievants to fill the next MHI Supervisor vacancy.
The Authority concluded that the Agency did not establish that the award was deficient. The Authority rejected the allegation that the award failed to draws its essence from the parties' agreements and established past practice. Additionally, the Authority concluded that the award did not violate management's right to select employees under § 7106(a)(2)(c) of the statute.
The Authority concluded that although the award affected management's right to select, it met the requirements established by Authority precedent. The Authority noted that to the extent that the Agency claimed that the award affected management's discretion to leave a position unfilled, the Authority noted that the award did not deprive the Agency of such discretion. The award only required the Agency to select one of the grievants for the next vacancy. Thus, the Agency kept the discretion to determine if and when the next vacancy would be filled.