s004379

Office of the General Counsel

Date: April 13, 2000
Matter of: [xxx]
File Number: S004379

OPM Contact: Murray M. Meeker

The claimant, an employee with the [agency] in [xxx], seeks overtime pay for travel time in connection with training that he attended in [xxx]. For the reasons expressed herein, the claim is denied for lack of jurisdiction.

The [agency] has advised the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that during the period covered by the claim, the claimant was subject to a negotiated grievance procedure under a collective bargaining agreement, and that the claim is not excluded from the agreement's negotiated grievance procedure. Indeed, the claimant is a Union [xxx], and he has previously filed a grievance under the negotiated grievance procedure concerning this matter.

OPM cannot take jurisdiction over a claim that is subject to a negotiated grievance procedure under a collective bargaining agreement unless that matter is or was specifically excluded from the agreement's grievance procedure. 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. Carter v. Gibbs, 909 F.2d 1425, 1453 (Fed. Cir. 1990) (en banc) (In enacting 5 U.S.C.  7121(a), Congress intended that the negotiated grievance procedure was to be the exclusive remedy for matters not excluded from the grievance process), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 811 (1990). Accord, Harris v. United States, 841 F.2d 1097 (Fed. Cir. 1988); Cecil E. Riggs et al., B-222962.3, April 23, 1992.