Erich Wagner at Government Executive reports a coalition of Labor Groups are suing the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) in an effort to block new regulations granting the Agency’s political appointees control over Union Elections at Federal Agencies, arguing both that the Agency robbed stakeholders of the opportunity to weigh in on the changes and that the measure would have the opposite effect from its stated aim. Since 1983, the handling of petitions for Union Elections and other petitions relating to the composition of Bargaining Units at Federal Agencies have primarily been handled by the FLRA’s Regional Directors and their Staff - career Employees, with a process by which parties can appeal their decisions to the Authority’s three-member Board, Presidential Appointees confirmed by the Senate. But last month, the FLRA issued an interim final rule wresting control of those petitions from Regional Directors, who the Agency said will now work “collaboratively” with the three-member authority to process, and remove the appeals process. The rule, set to take effect on Thursday (April 23rd), bypassed the notice-and-comment period agencies traditionally employ when they consider major changes to their operating rules. “After reexamination of its practices, the FLRA finds the memorandum of delegated authorities and responsibilities to the (Regional Directors), and the related regulations governing representation matters, merit revision,” the rule states. “The FLRA envisions a streamlined process in which representation matters are resolved through the collaborative efforts of the Regional Offices and the authority - rather than a strict separation of an initial decision by an RD, followed by a possible appeal to, and potentially duplicative decision by, the authority.” The legal challenge - filed by the American Federation of Government Employees, National Association of Government Employees, National Federation of Federal Employees and other Unions, argues the interim rule’s “threadbare” justification for upending four decades of precedent, the peremptory implementation window and failure to seek public comment before finalizing the regulations all amount to the type of “arbitrary and capricious” decision making forbidden by the Administrative Procedure Act.

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