ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 31, 1990                   TAG: 9005310277
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

SOME FEDERAL WORKERS GAIN RIGHT TO BARGAIN

The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, has allowed schoolteachers at the Fort Stewart, Ga., Army base to bargain over pay, opening the way for as many as 100,000 other federal workers to seek the same rights.

The high court Tuesday affirmed an appeals-court decision requiring the Defense Department to negotiate with the Fort Stewart Association of Educators, which had asked for a 13.5 percent salary increase.

Most of the nation's 2.1 million federal workers are prohibited from negotiating over salaries, which are set by law in the General Schedule. But about 40 categories of employees, including schoolteachers, are not covered by the General Schedule or other salary-setting statutes.

Federal law requires an agency to bargain with labor organizations over "conditions" of employment, unless they are set by law or regulation. The Supreme Court rejected the Justice Department's argument that wages are not a condition of employment.

- Washington Post 


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