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RESEARCH
The Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (FSLMRS) permits union participation at an employee examination conducted โby a representative of the agencyโ if the employee believes that the examination will result in disciplinary action and requests such representation. The NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) began investigating a government employee. An investigator from the OIGโs office interviewed the employee and, while a union representative was allowed to attend the interview, the representativeโs participation was curtailed. Because of this limitation on the representativeโs participation, the union filed an unfair labor charge with the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA).
Whether the NASA OIG investigator was a โrepresentativeโ of NASA under the terms of the FSLMRS, so that the employee had a right to union representation during the interview?
Yes. The NASA OIG investigator qualified as a โrepresentativeโ of NASA under the terms of the law.
The statute refers to โrepresentatives of the agency,โ and is not limited solely to those individuals who have management responsibilities. The term โrepresentativeโ therefore includes OIG investigators of NASA. Because the employee was entitled to union representation, the investigatorโs action in preventing active union representative participation was a violation of the FSLMRS.
527 U.S. 229, 119 S. Ct. 1979 (1999)
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