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Duty of Fair Representation
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§ 7114(a)(1): "An exclusive representative is responsible for representing the interests of all employees in the unit it represents without discrimination and without regard to labor organization membership." See NTEU v. FLRA, 800 F.2d 1165 (D.C. Cir. 1986), where the court held that the union's duty of fair representation is limited to matters as to which the union is the exclusive representative. Also see 28 FLRA No. 118, where FLRA said the following: "Where the union is acting as the exclusive representative of its unit members, we will continue to require that its activities be undertaken without discrimination and without regard to union membership under section 7114(a)(1). We will not, however, extend those statutory obligations to situations where the union is not acting as the exclusive representative . . . ." See 49 FLRA No. 71 for an example of a violation of this duty (members-only poll regarding seniority-based benefit system administered by union) and 46 FLRA No. 81 where FLRA found no violation because the nonmember employee against whom discipline was proposed had a right to have a representative of her own choice.
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Fair Representation, Duty of
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The union's duty to represent the interests of all unit employees without regard to union membership. However, in NTEU v. FLRA, 800 F.2d 1165 (D.C. Cir. 1986), the court held that the union's duty of fair representation is limited to matters as to which the union is the exclusive representative. (In that case, the union, which provided the services of an attorney to members in Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) proceedings, told an employee facing removal that the union wouldn't provide him with attorney services because he wasn't a member of the union.) The court dismissed the ULP because the right to appeal to MSPB does not arise out of the collective bargaining agreement and the employee was free to designate non-union representatives. Also see 28 FLRA No. 118, where FLRA said the following: "Where the union is acting as the exclusive representative of its unit members, we will continue to require that its activities be undertaken without discrimination and without regard to union membership under section 7114(a)(1). We will not, however, extend those statutory obligations to situations where the union is not acting as the exclusive representative."
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Unfair Labor Practice (ULP)
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A violation of any of the provisions of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute. It is a term of art (see § 7116) that is narrower in scope than the misleading adjective "unfair" suggests. ULP charges are filed with the Authority by an individual, a union, or an activity. They are investigated by the General Counsel who issues a ULP complaint if the General Counsel concludes the charge(s) have merit, and who prosecutes the matter before an Administrative Law Judge in a factfinding hearing and before the Authority, which decides the matter.
The most common agency ULPs are duty-to-bargain ULPs (usually a failure to give the union notice of proposed changes in conditions of employment and/or engage in impact and implementation bargaining), formal discussion ULPs, Weingarten ULPs, and failure-to-provide-information ULPs. The most common ULP committed by a union is a failure to fairly represent (see fair representation) all unit members without regard to union membership.