§7118 Prevention of Unfair Labor Practices

Summary

The General Counsel must investigate any charge that an agency or labor organization committed an unfair labor practice. If the charge looks valid, the General Counsel can file a complaint and serve it on the agency or union. If no complaint is filed because the charge fails to allege an unfair practice, the person who filed the charge must receive a written explanation. A complaint must say what the charge is, that a hearing will be held before the Authority (or one of its members or a designated employee), and the time and place. The agency or union can answer the complaint and appear and give testimony. Normally a complaint cannot be based on conduct more than 6 months before the charge was filed, unless the General Counsel finds the filer was blocked from filing during those 6 months because the agency or union failed to do a duty owed to them or hid the conduct. The General Counsel may set up informal ways to try to resolve cases before filing a complaint. A hearing cannot start earlier than 5 days after the complaint is served. The Authority, a member, or a designated employee will run the hearing. Others may be allowed to join and testify. The hearing should follow government hearing rules when possible, but formal rules of evidence do not apply. A transcript must be kept. If the evidence shows, by a preponderance, that an unfair practice occurred, the hearing officer must write findings and order relief such as stopping the practice, requiring renegotiation of a collective bargaining agreement with retroactive effect, ordering reinstatement with backpay under section 5596, or a combination of these or other actions to carry out the law. If the evidence does not show an unfair practice, the complaint must be dismissed with written findings. The Authority may ask the Director of the Office of Personnel Management for an advisory opinion under section 7105(i) about interpreting OPM rules or policies.