Office of the General Counsel

S015880

Dear Mr. [xxx]:

We have completed our review of your claim for Sunday Premium Pay and have determined that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) cannot render a decision concerning this matter.

The record shows that while employed as a Security Police Officer, you were part of a unit covered by a Collective Bargaining Agreement. In October 1993, shift changes were made affecting all Security Police Officers. Since nonmanagement personnel are members of the [labor union], the union was contacted as to the proper course of action to be taken. The union informed management that a survey of the members of the unit indicated that a majority of unit personnel favored a duty hour change.

Our Office cannot take jurisdiction over the claim of a federal employee on a matter that is subject to the negotiated grievance procedure under a collective bargaining agreement between the employees agency and union, unless that matter is or was specifically excluded from the agreements grievance procedure. This is because 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.

Cecil E. Riggs, et al.,

B-222962.3, April 23, 1992.

In the present case the negotiated grievance procedure was available to you when your claim arose, that grievance procedure was your exclusive remedy. The fact that you may have failed to take advantage of that procedure when it was available does not create jurisdiction in our Office to consider a claim over which we had no jurisdiction when it arose. Accordingly, we decline to assert jurisdiction or issue a decision concerning this matter.

Sincerely,

Joann Charleston
Adjudicator