An arbitrator has ruled that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives violated an agreement with the National Treasury Employees Union by splitting performance-pay increases 50-50 between base pay and lump sum payments in fiscal 2004 for some employees because of budgetary concerns, the union has announced.
Management did not consult with the union in violation of a collective bargaining agreement, the arbitrator found. Lump-sum payments would cost the agency less than adjusting base pay for a longer term under the agency’s pay demonstration project for about 100 scientific and technical positions.
“ATF’s invocation of budgetary concerns provides no basis to nullify the parties’ agreement with respect to the form of payouts for performance-based pay increases,” the arbitrator said.
“ATF’s interpretation,” he said, “would essentially nullify the parties’ agreement by subjecting all of its terms to management’s unilaterally exercised discretion,” echoing recent federal court rulings that struck down labor-management provisions in the new personnel systems being developed by the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.