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56 FLRA No. 49
National Association of Government Employees Local R5-136 and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Ralph H. Johnson Medical Center Charleston, South Carolina, 0-NG-2365 (Decided May 5, 2000)
This case concerned the negotiability of a single proposal concerning wage surveys to be used for setting pay rates of Agency pharmacists. The Authority found that the proposal was within the duty to bargain and order the Agency to bargain.
The Authority noted that it had jurisdiction to consider the negotiability of the proposal It distinguished this case from others where it lacked jurisdiction to review the Secretary's determination as to a matter covered by title 38, noting that those cases involved an unreviewable determination by the Secretary, or a delegate, under 38 U.S.C. § 7422(d), that the subject of a proposal concerned a matter pertaining to the conditions of employment of non-hybrid employees covered by 38 U.S.C. § 7422(b). The Authority further explained that positions listed in section 7401(3), including pharmacists, are hybrid positions and such employees are not covered by section 7422. Thus, the Secretary's authority to increase pay rates under section 7455 applies alike to non-hybrid and hybrid employees.
The Authority found that this proposal did not require that the Agency adopt pay rates derived from positions surveyed that were not comparable to Agency pharmacist positions. Therefore, it concluded that the Agency provided no support for its bare claim that the proposal was inconsistent with section 7455.