FLRA NEWS
FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY – WASHINGTON, DC 20424
Contact: Rebecca Osborne FLRA.gov FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
771-444-5778 September 12, 2023
The FLRA Updates Its Negotiability Regulations, eFiling System, and Negotiability Forms
Today, the Federal Labor Relations Authority (the Authority) substantively revised its
Negotiability Regulations for the first time since 1999. The Rule will update the adjudication
process for negotiability appeals, and is intended to benefit the Authority’s parties by clarifying
various matters and streamlining the negotiability process, thereby enabling the Authority to
provide the parties with more timely decisions.
First, the Rule imposes a new requirement on each party to give sufficiently detailed
explanations to enable the Authority to understand the party’s position regarding the meaning,
operation, and effects of a proposal or provision, as well as the associated legal implications.
Parties are clearly notified that they should not expect the Authority to fill in gaps in order to
make sense of incompletely explained positions. By requiring parties to sufficiently explain
their positions, the Final Rule should allow for more timely dispositions based on adequately
detailed records.
Second, the Rule streamlines the procedure for severing a proposal or provision into distinct
parts. Previously, severance was available at two points in the negotiability proceedings. Under
the Final Rule, severance may occur only as part of the Union’s Response to the Agency’s
Statement of Position. As an additional change to the severance procedure, a union will not
seek the Authority’s approval for severance; instead, the union may accomplish severance of its
own accord. However, the union must explain how the newly severed proposals or provisions
operate and stand alone with independent meaning, as well as why the newly severed proposals
or provisions are within the duty to bargain or consistent with law. The Authority anticipates
that these changes will result in fewer severance-related disputes, thereby expediting
negotiability proceedings.
Third, the Rule makes several other changes to the Negotiability Regulations, including:
providing additional examples for commonly used terms; clarifying the deadlines for certain
filings; explaining that the Authority may hold a hearing or take other appropriate action instead
of, or in addition to, conducting a post-petition conference; revising the rules for filing
additional submissions; and defining when a grievance is “resolved administratively” for
purposes of a negotiability petition that was previously dismissed without prejudice due to a
directly related grievance.
The Authority’s eFiling system and negotiability forms will reflect the changes to the
Regulations once those changes go into effect on October 12, 2023.
Chairman Susan Tsui Grundmann stated, “These updated Regulations will provide the parties
with essential guidance in understanding their responsibilities in negotiability cases, and the
accompanying changes to the eFiling system and negotiability forms will provide the Authority
with better information to promptly resolve negotiability disputes. Member Colleen Duffy Kiko
and I are proud to make these changes in furtherance of Congress’s goal to ‘expedite
proceedings’ in negotiability cases, consistent with 5 U.S.C. § 7117(c)(6).”
The Authority encourages all interested persons to carefully review the Rule, which can be
found at: https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection/2023-19269/negotiability-
proceedings.
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The FLRA administers the labor-management relations program for 2.1 million non-Postal federal
employees worldwide, approximately 1.2 million of whom are represented in 2,200 bargaining
units. It is charged with providing leadership in establishing policies and guidance related to
federal sector labor-management relations and with resolving disputes under, and ensuring
compliance with, the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute.