Labor Management Relations in the Federal Government

A major aspect of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 was the establishment of the Federal Labor Relations Authority as an independent, neutral third party for resolving labor-management disputes. The Authority's role includes interpreting and applying the Act to provide a fair balance between employees' rights to participate in collective bargaining and the Federal Government's need to maintain the efficiency of its operations; to define the extent to which employee representatives may participate in decisions affecting employment conditions; and to safeguard employees' rights by adjudicating disputes alleging violations of employee legal protections. Throughout its first year, start-up and operational problems have impaired the Authority's ability to effectively perform all its duties. It lacked sufficiently skilled staff in its regional offices to prosecute unfair labor practice cases, a resource problem compounded by an unanticipated high volume of cases. Delayed appointment and confirmation of the General Counsel prevented the issuing of regulations or the taking of dispositive action on unfair labor practice cases, resulting in a substantial case backlog. The Authority has had frustrating and time-consuming difficulties in acquiring suitable office space for its headquarters and several of its regional offices. GAO believes that certain of the Authority's start-up problems may have been minimized if more technical and advisory assistance had been available and recommends that the Office of Management and Budget enhance its capability to assist new agencies in setting up operations. The Authority has taken steps to reorganize its headquarters operations, experiment with the use of time targets for case processing, and institute some new procedures for expiditing case handling. GAO believes there has been a noticeable change in Federal labor-management relations as a result of the Authority's leadership role. However, the Authority cannot not carry the entire labor-management burden alone. A successful program is characterized by the bilateral resolution of mutual problems and challenges by managers and employee representatives at their work locations. Also, better cooperation by Federal agencies is needed in order for the Authority to concentrate on substantive cases.