Office of the General Counsel

Date: June 26, 1998
Matter of: [xxx]
File Number: S001422

OPM Contact: Murray M. Meeker

The claimant, a civilian employee at [xxx], requests compensation for work that he performed in March 1998.

The [xxx] has advised the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that during the period covered by the claim, the claimant was subject to a negotiated grievance procedure under a collective bargaining agreement, and that the claim is not excluded from the agreement's negotiated grievance procedure.

OPM cannot take jurisdiction over a claim that is or was subject to a negotiated grievance procedure under a collective bargaining agreement unless that matter is or was specifically excluded from the agreement's grievance procedure.

The courts have found that Congress intended that such a grievance procedure is to be the exclusive remedy for matters not excluded from the grievance process. Carter v. Gibbs, 909 F.2d 1425, 1453 (Fed. Cir. 1990) (en banc) (In enacting 5 U.S.C.  7121(a), Congress intended that the negotiated grievance procedure was to be the exclusive remedy for matters not excluded from the grievance process), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 811 (1990). Accord, Harris v. United States, 841 F.2d 1097 (Fed. Cir. 1988); Cecil E. Riggs et al., B-222962.3, April 23, 1992.

The CPAC advised OPM further that all required actions had been completed, and that the employee would receive the retroactive back pay that he had claimed.