(July 17, 2024) On Friday, July 12, Federal Labor Arbitrator Keith Greenberg issued a decision finding that the management of NOAA Office of General Counsel, acting at the direction of the Department of Commerce, violated its collective bargaining agreement with NWSEO by denying the union’s request for official time to lobby Congress on the NOAA Organic Act. NWSEO represents a bargaining unit of all non-supervisory attorneys in the NOAA General Counsel’s Office and its Regional Counsel’s Offices nationwide.
Last year, the chairman of the House Science Committee introduced the NOAA Organic Act, which would make NOAA an agency independent of DOC. Section 208 of the bill would direct the National Academy of Public Administration to conduct a study examining the feasibility of transferring management responsibility for the Endangered Species Act (as it applies to marine life) as well as the Marine Mammal Protection Act from NOAA to the Department of the Interior. Advising on the management and enforcement of these statutes constitutes the primary duty of many NWSEO-represented attorneys in the NOAA General Counsel’s Office. The union’s Regional Chair requested up to ten hours of official time to lobby against this provision of the proposed legislation. In section 7102 of the Federal Labor Management Relations Statute, Congress listed lobbying as a protected right of Federal unions and their members:
Each employee shall have the right to form, join, or assist any labor organization . . . such right includes the right to act for a labor organization in the capacity of a representative and the right, in that capacity, to present the views of the labor organization to heads of agencies and other officials of the executive branch of the Government, the Congress, or other appropriate authorities.
The NOAA OGC-NWSEO collective bargaining agreement contains similar provisions as well as the right of NWSEO officers to utilize official time “in which to perform their representational duties.” The Federal Labor Relations Authority has repeatedly ruled that official time may be used by union officials to lobby Congress on matters affecting working conditions. In June 2005, the Assistant General Counsel of the Department of Commerce provided the Director of the National Weather Service with an opinion confirming that NWSEO representatives are entitled to use official time for lobbying “to the same extent and in the same manner” as official time is granted for other representational purposes.”
Nonetheless, acting on the Department of Commerce's direction, NOAA OGC denied NWSEO’s request for official time to lobby against Section 280, claiming that the union’s intended lobbying plans violated the Anti-Lobbying Act, which prohibits Federal employees from using government time to engage in indirect, grassroots lobbying (encouraging the general public to lobby Congress) rather than contacting Congress directly.
Arbitrator Greenberg held that NWSEO’s official time request “fall[s] squarely within the definition of ‘direct lobbying’” and “that the Agency’s asserted basis for denial of the Union’s official time request . . . cannot be credited on this record,” and that the official time denial violated the NWSEO contract. The Arbitrator directed the agency to pay the Union’s Regional Chair for the time he spent lobbying on his own time, and to “cease and desist from improper denials of requests by the Union for reasonable official time for use in preparations for direct lobbying.”
Note to Stewards: please post this Four Winds along with this letter on your bulletin boards.
-NWSEO-
No one cares more for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)employees than NOAA employees.No one works harder for NOAA employees than NOAA employees.We are NOAA employees. We are NWSEO.