GRIEVING THE DENIAL OF A DEBT COLLECTION WAIVER

To our surprise, both FLRA members decided to interpret the law differently from Chairman Dubester.  The case raised the question of whether an agency’s denial of an employee’s request to repay an overpayment is grievable.  These would be cases where the agency overpaid the employee salary or benefits, e.g., housing allowances, transit subsidies, etc. These issues had always been grievable for decades until President Trump’s two FLRA appointees launched their campaign to make more and more issues not grievable. Given that this new decision involves a grievance over a statutory provision, the union cannot appeal it to court. Consequently, the best course would be for some union to put a term contract proposal on the table and file a negotiability appeal to FLRA when the agency declares it non-negotiable.  If both members of the FLRA continue to oppose Dubester’s reasoning, the union will be able to take the issue to court.  The new case is US Agency for Global Media and AFGE, 73 FLRA 162 (2022).