membership and support for their organizational activities among the members of the Foreign Service. Subject to the limitation prescribed by the head of the agency, representatives of such organizations shall be permitted, upon request, to post notices or distribute literature or to hold organizational meetings at any post. Such permission shall not extend to meetings during official duty hours or to activities which disrupt or tend to disrupt the proper functioning of the post's activities.

(b) Official time may not be used by representatives of organizations for the purposes of soliciting memberships or support among the employees of the agency or for any purpose not relating directly to the representation of the employees to management (i.e., consultations, conferral, grievance representation, and hearings directed by the Commission or the Board).

(c) The use of agency facilities, including the interoffice or interdepartmental distribution system, will be governed by the regulations of the head of the agency. Use of mail facilities to or from posts normally used by the public shall be available to organizations on the same basis as to any member of the public. Telecommunication facilities may only be used following a request to, and written permission by, the Secretary or his desig

nee.

(d) The amount of official time spent by representatives of a recognized organization for the consultation process shall be limited to that reasonably required to reach agreement but not to exceed four (4) hours each month or forty-eight (48) hours each fiscal year. Such time limits will not be applicable during the first 3 months following recognition of an exclusive representative of all the employees of an agency. The head of each agency may extend the permissible time in the interest of reaching agreement. The number of organization representatives who are employed by the foreign affairs agencies and who are on official time normally shall not exceed the number of agency representatives. If an appeal has been taken under § 14.9, the Board may re

quest that the head of the agency permit a representative or representatives of the organization a reasonable amount of official time for purposes of appeals.

(e) The amount of official time spent by representatives of an organization for conferral and review shall be over and above the time used for consultation and shall be limited to that reasonably necessary. The number of organization participants at conferral shall normally not exceed the number of the agency participants.

(f) Neither overtime, compensatory time off, nor travel time will be available to organizational representatives because of time spent in the process of consultation or conferral.

§ 14.14 Miscellaneous.

(a) Nothing in this part, the results of consultations, or any agreement between the agency and an organization shall be construed to limit the authority of agency management to establish policies and practices directly affecting those employed by the agency other than eligible employees.

(b) Nothing in the order, this part, the result of any consultation, or any agreement shall in any way limit the authority and responsibility of the head of an agency to seek any and all appropriate judicial and/or administrative action to terminate or prohibit a strike, work stoppace, slowdown, or any other such concerted action which tends to affect detrimentally the operations of an agency.

(c) All employees of the Foreign Service and all persons employed by or assigned to a foreign affairs agency shall provide full cooperation to the Board, the Commission, and disputes panels, and provide those organs with any and all information or assistance requested by them.

(d) Both agency management and all organizations shall be bound by the decisions of the Board (unless the head of the agency directs otherwise in a decision on an appeal under § 14.9) and the Commission.

(e) Nothing in the order, this part, the results of consultation, or any agreement shall prevent the head of

an agency from excluding any person, party, documents, or information from any other party or proceeding if, in his sole discretion, he determines in writing that such exclusion is required to protect national interest. Such exclusion shall not be interpreted as an admission of any position.

(f) In computing any period of time prescribed by or allowed by this part, the day of the act, event, or default after which the designated period of time begins to run, shall not be included. The last day of the period so computed is to be included unless it is a Saturday, Sunday, official Federal holiday or local legal holiday (if the action directly involves a foreign post) i which event the period shall run until the end of the next day which is neither a Saturday, Sunday, official Federal holiday, or local legal holiday. When the period of time prescribed or allowed is less than seven (7) days, intermediate Saturdays, Sundays, official Federal holidays, and local legal holidays shall be excluded from the computations. When the regulations in this part require the filing of any paper, such document must be received by the designated recipient before the close of business of the last day of the time limit, if any, for such filing or extension of time that may have been granted. Whenever a party has the right or is required to do some act pursuant to the regulations in this part within a prescribed period after service of a notice or paper and the notice or paper is served on him by mail within the United States, three (3) days shall be added to the prescribed period or if outside the United States an appropriate amount of time: Provided, however, That such additional time may not be added if any extension of time may have been granted.

(g) When an act is required or allowed to be done at or within a specified time, the time period may be altered where is shall be manifest that strict adherence will work surprise or injustice or interfere with the proper effectuation of the order.

(h) The regulations in this part shall be construed liberally to effectuate

(a) The Executive Secretary of the Board of the Foreign Service (hereinafter "the Excutive Secretary") will notify members of the Board of the Foreign Service (hereinafter "the Board") when a meeting is scheduled; that notice will include information related to the date, time, place and agenda of the meeting. The Executive Secretary will also advise agency management (as defined in section 2 of Executive Order 11636) and the recognized organization (as defined in 22 CFR 14.3(c)) of the date, time, place and subject of a meeting when the Board meets in exercise of its functions under Executive Order 11636.

(b) The Board may, at the discretion of its chairperson, invite either or both agency management and the recognized organization to make verbal or written presentations on matters before the Board. If the Board were meeting in consideration of an appeal or related matter under Executive Order 11636, it could invite both the exclusive representative and agency management to make presentations before it, but would not invite one without the other.

(c) Meetings may be attended by only the following persons:

(1) Board members or their alternates;

(2) The non-voting observer from the Office of Management and Budget or his alternate;

(3) The Executive Secretary;

(4) A conference reporter who will make a verbatim transcript of the meeting's proceedings, as appropriate:

(5) Board members may bring one person to advise or assist them on the subject matter. Such person may not participate in the deliberations of the Board unless his/her principal first seeks and obtains appropriate recognition from the Chairperson. The alternate to the Chairperson and Vice Chairperson will attend all meetings but will not participate in the proceedings if both principals are present.

(6) Legal counsel or others, as approved or invited by the Chairperson. Authorization for others to attend the meeting must be obtained from the Chairperson, through the Executive Secretary.

(d) It is expected that all 10 of the Board members plus the non-voting observer (or their alternates) will attend all meetings. If a Board member or his/her alternate is unable to attend a meeting, he/she (or the agency head, if circumstances so warrant) shall designate an ad hoc alternate member for that meeting so as to maintain an appropriately balanced representation and voting at meetings. Consultation by management (as defined in Section 2 of Executive Order 11636) with the recognized organization is not required in naming an ad hoc alternate to attend a meeting, but the same restrictions applied to a member or alternate (see paragraph (e)) also apply to the ad hoc alternate. The level of representation and authority of the ad hoc alternate should be reasonably consistent with the criteria employed to date in the selection of regular alternates.

(e) For the purposes of consideration of matters under Section 9 of ExecuLive Order 11636, the term "personnel operations" used in Section 9(b) of the Executive Order includes "employeemanagement relations". Board members are expected to be broadly representative of their agency's interests, but on appeal cases and related matters are expected to reach decisions independently and impartially and not as representatives of their designating agencies.

(f) A quorum at a meeting of the Board shall consist of 7 voting members, including at least 5 members from the foreign affairs agencies.

(g) A meeting of the Board can be convened only by the Chairperson or Vice Chairperson. The Chairperson will consider requests for meetings by an individual Board member or group of members, but the decision to call or not to call a meeting remains with the Chairperson. If three members of the Board request a meeting on a particular issue, however, the Chairperson will be obliged to schedule a meeting within 30 days of the date of the request, or within 30 days of the date of the third member's request, should the three requests not be submitted simultaneously.

§ 15.2 Agenda and documentation.

(a) A fixed agenda will be established for each meeting and circulated in advance to each member of the Board, unless, because of unforeseen circumstances, an emergency meeting must be convened on an urgent matter. When possible, a brief period of approximately 15 minutes will be included as the last item on each agenda for free discussion of topics of interest or concern to members. The Board will not normally take action on matters introduced for consideration during this free discussion period.

(b) A written record will be made of all of the Board meetings, unless otherwise determined by the Chairperson. This record will be filed with the Executive Secretary and will be available for review by any Board member or his representative. Minutes of each meeting shall be drafted by the Executive Secretary and circulated to the members. Appropriate parties will receive decisions, findings, recommendations, or advice from the Board in writing. Those individuals or agency representatives who are invited to appear before the Board will have access to the written record of that part of the meeting related to their appearance.

(c) Position papers and other related documents, which interested parties (if invited to do so by the Chairperson) or members of the Board wish to

provide as a basis for discussion at a meeting should be submitted to the Executive Secretary in 12 copies at least 10 days prior to the date of the meeting so that the Executive Secretary may circulate the documents to the members in sufficient time for review. The 10-day rule for distribution of documents may be waived by the Executive Secretary if, in his or her opinion, the situation so demands.

§ 15.3 Voting and decisions.

(a) Voting will be by members of their alternates. An ad hoc alternate inember who attends a meeting in place of the member of regular alternate will also have the right to participate fully in the proceedings of that meeting and to vote.

(b) As a general rule, proxy voting will not be permitted. If someone participates in the major portion of the discussion and must leave shortly before the actual voting takes place, that person, at the Chairperson's discretion, may leave his proxy vote with the Chairperson.

a

(c) Motions will first be presented in a positive, rather than a negative version; that is, a motion will be considered first to accept or approve policy, a practice or recommendation, rather than to reject it, and a majority vote in favor of it will be necessary. Therefore, a tie vote will be considered as not having approved that policy or practice. Where the question of forwarding a recommendation to the head of a foreign affairs agency is involved, the recommendation shall be forwarded together with the statement that the Board's consideration of that recommendation resulted in a tie vote, if such is the case. The Chairperson may vote on all issues.

(d) The Executive Secretary will prepare for the Chairperson's signature, a memorandum to the head of the agency affected transmitting the Board's decision and requesting that the head of the agency advise the Chairperson within 30 days as to his or her action on the decision.

§ 15.4 Issues of consultability.

(a) Agency management will inform the recognized organization in writing,

in advance, of any proposed changes in personnel policies and procedures which affect working conditions, so that the recognized organization can exercise its rights to consult, to seek determination as to whether an issue is consultable, or to confer, as provided in Executive Order 11636.

(b) The Board will act expeditiously on any appeal. Parties are required to raise the procedural issues of consultability in a timely fashion at the early stages of the consultation process, as presently required by agency regulations. Timeliness requirements will apply to each new proposal or issue which is presented in writing during consultations.

(c) The Board will not entertain, act upon or refer to the Employee-Management Relations Commission (Section 5 of Executive Order 11636) any claims of consultability unless the parties have complied with the requirement of prior notification in writing as delineated in § 15.4(a) and with the timeliness requirements as delineated in § 15.4(b).

(d) Pursuant to section 9(a) of Executive Order 11636, however, a foreign affairs agency or recognized organization may, within 10 days after transmittal of the Board's decision to the agency head, raise before the agency head, its view that the Board's decision is violative of law, applicable higher-level regulations, or Executive Order 11636. This paragraph may not be considered as restrictive as to other rights and authorities created by Section 9(a) of the Order.

§ 15.5 Miscellaneous.

(a) Members of the Board and the observer may appoint a liaison officer of their own choosing to serve as their point of contact with the Executive Secretary on administrative, technical, or other matters related to the Board. (b) In the case of the foreign affairs agencies, no one responsible for personnel operations or employee-management relations in their agencies or reporting to someone holding such responsibilities shall be eligible to perform liaison officer duties in the Board's consideration of an appeal

(a) "Act" means the Foreign Service Act of 1946, as amended.

(b) "Grievant" means any officer or employee of the Service who is a citizen of the United States; or for purposes of paragraphs (c) (7) and (8) of this section, a former officer or employee of the Service; or in the case of death of the officer or employee, a surviving spouse or dependent family member of the officer or employee.

(c) "Grievance" means any act or condition subject to the control of the Foreign Affairs agencies (the Department of State, the Agency for International Development, or the U.S. Information Agency) which is alleged to deprive the grievant of a right or benefit authorized by law or regulation or is otherwise a source of concern or dissatisfaction to the grievant, including, but not limited to the following:

(1) Complaints against separation of an officer or employee allegedly contrary to law or regulation or predicat

ed upon alleged inaccuracy (including inaccuracy resulting from omission or any relevant and material document), error, or falsely prejudicial character of any part of the grievant's official personnel record;

(2) Other alleged violation, misinterpretation, or misapplication of applicable law, regulation, or published policy affecting the terms and conditions of the grievant's employment or career status;

(3) Allegedly wrongful disciplinary action against an employee constituting a reprimand or suspension from official duties;

(4) Dissatisfaction with any matter subject to the control of the agency with respect to the grievant's physical working environment;

(5) Alleged inaccuracy, error, or falsely prejudicial material in the grievant's official personnel file;

(6) Action alleged to be in the nature of reprisal or other interference with freedom of action in connection with an employee's participation under these grievance procedures;

(7) When the grievant is a former officer who was involuntarily retired pursuant to sections 633 and 634 of the Act within 6 years prior to December 1, 1975, "grievance" shall mean a complaint that such involuntary retirement violated applicable law or regulation effective at the time of the retirement or that the involuntary retirement was predicated directly upon material contained in the grievant's official personnel file alleged to be erroneous or falsely prejudicial in character; and

(8) When the grievant is a former officer or employee or a surviving spouse or dependent family member of a former officer or employee, "grievance" shall mean a complaint that an allowance or other financial benefit has been denied arbitrarily, capriciously or contrary to applicable law or regulation.

(d) Grievance does not include the following:

(1) Complaints against individual assignment or transfers of Foreign Service officers or employees, which are ordered in accordance with law and reg