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Washington, D.C: -- The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today told a federal appeals court that President Clinton properly elected on behalf of government managers to bargain over certain workplace subjects when he issued a 1993 Executive Order on federal collective bargaining.

Counsel for NTEU, the nation's largest independent federal union, argued the matter before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on behalf of the Patent Office Professional Association (POPA) and the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE).

NTEU President Robert M. Tobias called the case "an extremely important one, not just for federal employee rights, but for the future of labor?management partnership in the federal sector."

NTEU, which represents more than 155,000 employees in 21 agencies and departments, . told the court that since President Clinton "clearly is the nation's chief executive officer," managers of federal agencies simply do not have the authority to ignore the dictates of an Executive Order??especially one directed specifically at them and triggering statutory rights.

At issue is whether the 1993 Executive Order, in which President Clinton directs agency managers to bargain collectively with employee representatives over certain subjects that managers previously had the discretion not to bargain over, triggers the agencies' statutory duty to bargain in good faith.

The case involves the Commerce Department's Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), which in 1994 refused to bargain with POPA over its decision to fill new patent examiner positions with two?year term appointments, rather than with permanent employees.

After an unfair labor practice charge was filed, the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) ruled 2?1 that it could not compel agencies to follow the Executive Order. The Order, issued by the President Oct. 1, 1993, converted to mandatory subjects of collective bargaining certain matters identified in the Federal Service Labor?Management Statute that prior to the Executive Order had been subject to bargaining at the discretion of agency managers. The PTO decision on term appointments fell into the affected category.

In his Order, President Clinton said that agency heads "shall ...negotiate over the subjects set forth in 5 U.S.C. Sec. 7106 (b) (1) [of the labor relations statute] and instruct subordinate official to do the same."

Tobias said not only is the Order "unambiguous and clear," but that the expansion of matters subject to collective bargaining in the federal workplace, in concert with partnership, "has been instrumental" in helping improve labor?management relations and agency performance.