AWS—Know Your Rights
By Mike Derby PASS Counsel
PASS TIMES MARCH/APRIL 2000
The following statements raise some issues surrounding alternate work schedules (AWS) that should be familiar to all employees.
 | I have a right under the law to work an AWS. |
| Once I’m on an alternate work schedule, it can’t be revoked. |
| The agency doesn’t have to bargain over terminating AWS in my office. |
Airway Facilities (AF) members should be particularly familiar with AWS. During negotiations for the new collective bargaining agreement, the agency expressed a strong desire to terminate AWS for these employees. The Flight Standards, AVN and MIDO bargaining teams may hear the same proposal. As you know by now, AWS was not eliminated in the AF bargaining unit. Article 51, Section 4 of the new AF agreement provides AWS for bargaining unit employees, operational requirements permitting. However, given the agency’s interest at the bargaining table, PASS-AF members should anticipate AWS related problems during the initial period of the new agreement. Thus, these members should review the legal basis for AWS and the standards needed to be met before AWS can be discontinued in a particular office.
Under the Federal Employees Flexible and Compressed Work Schedules Act (5 United States Code (USC), Chapter 61), Congress authorized certain types of AWS. These are set forth in Article 51 of the agreement. Under Personnel Reform, Congress exempted the FAA from the requirements of 5 USC Chapter 61. However, in 1996, when the FAA implemented its new FAA Personnel Management System ("PMS"), the FAA stated in Chapter 1, Section 15:
‘FAA employees shall continue to be eligible to work flexible and compressed work schedules under the same criteria, procedures, and limitations that were applicable on March 31, 1996 .... "
In short, although technically you have no right under the law to work an alternate work schedule, the FAA adopted the substance of the AWS law when it adopted the new personnel system in 1996. Therefore, your AWS rights are derived from Article 51 of the collective bargaining agreement and Chapter 1 of the FAA's PMS.
Under criteria set forth in the law that was adopted by the FAA, once AWS is established, it can only be discontinued if the agency can show that the system has had an "adverse agency impact." Adverse agency impact is a technical term meaning that the AWS system has caused:
to bargain.(1) a reduction of the productivity of the agency,
(2) a diminished level of services furnished to the public by the agency, or
(3) An increase in the cost of agency operations.
If the union and agency do not agree on an AWS revocation and the agency still desires to terminate the system, the dispute is referred to the Federal Service Impasses Panel ("FSIP") -- an arm of the Federal Labor Relations Authority ("FLRA"). Remember, the agency must show decreased productivity or increased costs and establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the changes are directly attributable to the AWS—not other unrelated factors. When the union and agency are presenting a case to the FSIP, these situations usually cause the most heated debate. Agencies tend to blame productivity and cost problems on AWS, while unions focus on causes other than AWS, such as mismanagement and poor planning.
At the Eugene, Ore., System Service Center ("SSC") last. year, the agency attempted to terminate AWS without bargaining with PASS. PASS filed an unfair labor practice with the FLRA. After an extensive FLRA investigation, PASS and the FAA entered into a settlement agreement that the agency would not revoke AWS without providing the union notice and an opportunity
In these hectic times when family obligations, childcare issues, elder care and other personal needs increasingly place pressure on all employees, AWS’s flexibility takes on even more importance. Although the FAA has stated a desire to be a "family friendly" employer, the elimination of AWS was an agency goal at the bargaining table. Therefore, all PASS members should be aware of their AWS rights and the legal standards used by the FSIP when evaluating agency proposals to terminate the system.