OBJECTIONS TO ELECTION.   Charges filed with FLRA contesting election results because of alleged irregularities in the conduct of a representational election. If the objections are sustained, FLRA could set aside the election results and order that the election be rerun.

OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT (OPM).   Issues Governmentwide regulations on personnel matters that may have a substantial impact on the scope of bargaining; consults with labor organizations, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 7117(d), on those regulations; provides technical advice and assistance on labor-management relations matters to Federal agencies; also provides information on personnel matters to Federal agencies and the general public (e.g., this annotated glossary); and exercises oversight with regard to statutory and regulatory requirements relating to personnel matters.

OFFICIAL TIME.   At one time treated as a term of art created by § 7131, involving paid time for employees serving as union representatives. However, in 39 FLRA No. 44 the Authority said the following:

[S]ection 7131(d) relates only to the granting of official time in connection with labor-management relations activities. . . . However, . . . section 7131(d) does not preclude parties to a collective bargaining agreement from agreeing to provide official time [sic] for other matters; that is, matters other than those relating to labor-management relations activities. . . . Consistent with an agency's broad discretion to grant paid time in a variety of circumstances, parties may agree in their collective bargaining agreements to provide official time for other matters. . . . To the extent that earlier Authority decisions suggest that all collective bargaining agreement provisions dealing with official time must relate solely to labor-management relations activities, they will no longer be followed.

Under § 7131(a), union negotiators (no more than the number of management negotiators) who also are unit employees are statutorily entitled to official time to negotiate agreements (but not to travel and per diem-- see BATF v. FLRA, 104 S.Ct. 439 (1983)). Section 7131(b) prohibits use of official time for the performance of internal union business. Section 7131(c) provides for official time for employees "participating for, or on behalf of, a labor organization" in FLRA proceedings. See, e.g., 47 FLRA No. 48. And § 7131(d) allows the parties to negotiate the amount of official time that shall be granted to specified union representatives for the performance of specified representational functions.

OPEN PERIOD.   The 45-day period (105 - 60 days prior to expiration of agreement) when the union holding exclusive recognition is subject to challenge by a rival union or by unit employees who no longer want to be represented by the union. The open period is an exception to the contract bar rule.

ORGANIZATION.   A right reserved to management by § 7106(a)(1). In 53 FLRA No. 58, the Authority said the following about this management right:

Management's right to determine its organization under section 7106(a)(1) encompasses an agency's authority to determine its administrative and functional structure, including the relationship of personnel through lines of control and the distribution of responsibilities for delegated and assigned duties. [See 52 FLRA No. 79 and 46 FLRA No. 147.] That is, the right includes the authority to determine how the agency will structure itself to accomplish its mission and functions. . . . This determination includes such matters as where organizationally certain functions shall be established and where the duty stations of the positions providing those functions shall be maintained. [See 32 FLRA No. 128] (a proposal that would preclude management from moving the work of employees' positions from one location to another found to violate management's right to determine its organization, including the right to determine where, organizationally, certain functions shall be established and where the duty stations of the positions in those units shall be maintained).