NATCA Bookshelf

THE DELEGATE WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2016 12 2012 2014 2016 ➤ ➤ FCT Facilities Guidance At the NATCA Convention in Denver, the Convention delegates amend Section 3 of Article XV to provide that any bargaining unit member who accepted a supervisor/management position after September 12, 2008, (rather than June 6, 2006) and returns to the bargaining unit would have a cumulative seniority date set to his or her return date. This amendment is in response to several years of litigation over the retroactive portion of the policy adopted by the Convention delegates on September 12, 2008, and, as an outcome of that litigation, remediates the retroactive portion of the policy by inserting the date of the adoption of the 2008 amendment. (An exception to this policy continues to exist, however, for employees who return to the air traffic controller, traffic management coordinator/specialist, and NOTAM units from temporary promotions commenced after September 12, 2008, due to the pay provision in the 2009 agreement covering those units that was the result of the binding arbitration process.) ✪ The Convention delegates also delete Standing Rule A-3, which had required the National Office to maintain a list of each member's national seniority status, due to the impossibility of fulfilling that requirement as a result of the lack of easily available data for earlier periods of time. At the NATCA Convention in Minneapolis, no changes are made to the national seniority policy. On July 24, a new collective bargaining agreement between NATCA and the FAA for the air traffic controller, traffic management coordinator/specialist, and NOTAM specialist units goes into effect (the "slate book"). This new agreement also covers the flight service unit. The new agreement contains the same Article 83 language on the Union determination of seniority as the 2009 agreement. Article 108 also continues to allow employees covered by the slate book who return to one of the units from a temporary promotion to have their seniority reinstated without accruing seniority for the duration of the temporary promotion rather than having their seniority date set to the date of their return to the unit. NATCA has collective bargaining relationships with three contractors who operate NATCA-represented facilities in the Federal Contract Tower Program. The collective bargaining agreements with these contractors differ from the agreements with the FAA in that the contractors will not agree to seniority provisions that allow NATCA to unilaterally determine the seniority policy for the employees at the contract facilities. Federal labor law requires NATCA to bargain in good faith with these contractors in reaching an agreement; NATCA, therefore, cannot fail to bargain over seniority provisions for these agreements even though the NATCA Constitution establishes a national seniority policy. The policy in the NATCA Constitution is only applicable for units where the determination of seniority has been left by agreement to the unilateral determination of NATCA. Electronic copies of the guidance issued on the national seniority policy over the years can be found on the members' page of the NATCA website. Using the drop-down list under "About NATCA," select "NEB Policies," and then scroll down to "Seniority Guidance." ✪ NATCA SENIORITY continued

• Cover