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Washington, D.C.—In a major follow-up victory to an arbitration win some 15 months ago, the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) has prevailed in the remedy phase of a case involving illegal actions by the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in refusing to bargain over the impact and implementation of changing work assignments and other key scheduling matters.

The earlier decision made it clear that CBP is obligated to bargain with NTEU over these vital issues at the national level.

“This is a great victory for CBP employees, who had their lives significantly disrupted by these illegal and completely unnecessary acts by their agency, and by the agency’s adamant refusal to allow an employee voice in such basic issues as the impact of assignments and overtime,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. The original case involved grievances over issues such as these:

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At the port of Seattle, CBP unilaterally implemented a new work schedule, revoking the existing workweek which employees had relied upon in meeting personal responsibilities;

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In Miami, CBP unilaterally changed its policy under which employees could be excused from mandatory overtime;

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And at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), CBP unilaterally implemented a new policy under which officers from the Port of Long Beach, on temporary assignment at LAX, would be included in that facility’s overtime pool. This limited the ability of LAX officers to be considered for overtime work.

In his decision in the remedy phase—after the parties could not reach settlement following NTEU’s success on the merits in a November 2006 decision—the arbitrator ordered CBP to return to the working conditions in place when the union’s grievance was filed on May 5, 2005.

President Kelley said she expects CBP to appeal NTEU’s wins on both the merits of the grievance and the remedy phase to the Federal Labor Relations Authority, an action that will delay implementation and further harm employees at an agency already dealing with extremely low employee morale.

Nonetheless, the NTEU leader said, “Ultimately, CBP will have to learn that working against the interests of its own employees is working against the interests of the agency and the nation.” She added that NTEU “will continue to take whatever steps are necessary to protect our bargaining rights and those of the employees we represent.”

In the underlying case, NTEU challenged the continuing refusal of CBP to bargain with it over changes in assignment and overtime procedures; that occurred after CBP’s unilateral implementation of an inspectional assignment policy that was not bargained.

NTEU recognized CBP’s right to assign work and overtime, but maintained that CBP has an obligation to bargain with the union over the impact of changes in conditions of employment—which the agency refused to do.

The 2006 decision, requiring CBP to conduct bargaining with NTEU at the national level over changes in assignments and overtime procedures, provided for a time period during which the parties could attempt to work out a settlement consistent with the decision. When they were not able to do so, the arbitrator took over the task of fashioning a remedy.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments, including nearly 22,000 in CBP.