A right reserved to management by § 7106(a)(2)(C) to make selections for appointments from any appropriate source. The right to select includes discretion to determine what knowledges, skills and abilities are necessary for successful performance in the position to be filled, as well as to determine which candidates possess these qualifications. Consequently, a proposal requiring management to fill vacancies in a RIF situation only with affected employees who meet minimum18 standards excessively interferes with the right to select. 23 FLRA No. l, #1.
FLRA has held that a career-ladder promotion isn't a "selection for appointment" under § 7106(a)(2)(C). 11 FLRA No. 58, #2. Such a promotion is, instead, "merely . . . a ministerial act implementing the Agency's earlier decision made pursuant to its discretion under section 7106(a)(2)(C) to select and place the employee involved in a career ladder position, with the intention of preparing the employee for successive noncompetitive promotions when [certain conditions are met]." 8 FLRA No. 97. Thus, FLRA has found proposals requiring that such promotions be made as soon as employees have demonstrated the ability to perform at the higher level and have met time-in-grade requirements to be negotiable (or, more commonly, it has sustained arbitration awards enforcing career-ladder promotion provisions). Proposals requiring management to create career-ladder positions, on the other hand, excessively interfere with the agency's right to determine its organization. 25 FLRA No. 21, #11.
Proposals requiring that unit positions be filled only via competitive procedures affect the right to select. See, in this connection, 56 FLRA No. 185, where FLRA said that such a disapproved provision did not "preserve management's right to ultimately select from a different source, including noncompetitive reassignment."