Office of Merit Systems Oversight and Effectiveness

Date: March 25, 2002
File Number: [01-0057]
Matter of: [Claimant]

OPM Contact: Deborah Y. McKissick

The claimant is a Community Planning and Development Specialist, GS-301-13, in the [agency, city, state]. He is requesting compensation for overtime during the period of February 4, 1996 to January 31, 2000. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) received the compensation claim on September 26, 2001. We accepted the claim on September 27, 2001, and received the agency administrative report on January 17, 2002. For the reasons stated below, we do not have jurisdiction to consider this claim.

Based on the information provided by the claimant and his agency, the claimant was a member of a bargaining unit, the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, during the time of the claim. Moreover, this matter was excluded from negotiated grievance procedures under the agency's collective bargaining agreement. See Article 22, Section 22.05, of the Agreement between U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO.

OPM cannot take jurisdiction over the claim of Federal employees that are or were subject to a negotiated grievance procedure under a collective bargaining agreement between the employee's agency and labor union, unless that matter is or was specifically excluded from the agreement's 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. Carter v. Gibbs, 909 F.2d 1452, 1454-55 (Fed. Cir. 1990) (en banc), cert. Denied, 498 U.S. 811 (1990), construing therein the provision in the Civil Service Reform Act codified at 5 U.S.C. § 7121(a). that Act mandates that the grievance procedures in negotiated collective bargaining agreements be the exclusive remedy for matters covered by the agreements. Accord, Paul D. Bills, et al., B260475 (June 13, 1995); Cecil E. Riggs, et al., 71 Comp. Gen. 374 (1992). According, OPM cannot assert jurisdiction over, or issue a decision concerning, this matter.

This settlement is final. No further administrative review is available within the Office of Personnel. Nothing in this settlement limits the claimant's right to bring an action in an appropriate United States Court.