Case: Labor Law/Contracts (D.C. Cir.)

The D.C. Circuit ruled that the operation of a continuance clause in a labor contract pending the negotiation of a successor agreement doesn’t permit a second round of agency-head review under the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute or enforcement of conflicting regulations that became effective after the original agreement. Because invoking a continuance clause doesn’t execute a new agreement, there is no statutory basis for more agency-head review, the court found. Contract extensions preserve an existing agreement rather than supplant it with a new one. Therefore, an extended contract is the same “agreement” that was “in effect” before the extension, ...