Federal Labor Relations Authority
Office of the Solicitor
Closed Court Litigation

Fourth Circuit

U.S. Dep't of Energy, Morgantown Energy Technology Center, Morgantown, West Virginia v. FLRA, 106 F.3d 1158 (4th Cir. 1997), reviewing 51 FLRA 124 (1995).

The Fourth Circuit denied enforcement to an Authority decision finding that the Department of Energy (the Department) committed unfair labor practices under section 7116(a)(1), (5) and (6) of the Statute by refusing to approve a contract provision that had been included in the parties' collective bargaining agreement at the direction of the Federal Service Impasses Panel. The provision would have required midterm bargaining on union-initiated proposals not contained in or covered by the collective bargaining agreement. The court relied on its decision in Social Security Administration v. FLRA, 956 F.2d 1280 (4th Cir. 1992), in which the court held that it was not an unfair labor practice for an agency to refuse to bargain on a union-initiated mid-term bargaining demand.