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56 FLRA No. 109
Antilles Consolidated Education Association and U.S. Department of Defense, Education Activity Antilles Consolidated School System, Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico, Case 0-NG-2518 (Decided September 21, 2000)
This case concerned the negotiability of one proposal which was found to be within the duty to bargain. The Authority found that the Agency was incorrect in its assertion that the Union's proposal was outside the duty bargain because the matter was specifically provided for by law and was therefore not a condition of employment.
The Authority noted that section 7102(2) of the Statute gives employees the right to engage in collective bargaining with respect to conditions of employment through representatives chosen by employees under this chapter. Here, there was no dispute that the optical plan and the dental plan proposed by the Union were "conditions of employment. The only contention by the Agency was that this subject matter was excluded from the Statute's definition of `conditions of employment' because it is specifically provided for by law. The law which the Agency appears to be referring to is 5 U.S.C. § 8906. However, as noted by the Union, the Department of Defense domestic dependent elementary and secondary schools are also governed by 10 U.S.C. § 2164. Under the latter, the Secretary of Defense has the authority to establish positions and create a compensation system in order to attract qualified applicants to the Defense Department schools. As 10 U.S.C. § 2164(e)(3)(B) states, the Agency is not bound by the rules found in Title 5 when determining what type of tenure, leave, hours of work, and other incidents of employment to offer to employees. However, even though the Secretary of Defense is not bound by the provisions of Title 5, the Secretary is still required to collectively bargain with respect to hours, wages and other terms and conditions of employment.