The case law analysis and inferences focus upon 19 available Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) decisions under the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, in which statutory or regulatory-based exceptions to the remedy formulations of arbitrators were raised. FLRA decisions resulting from these exceptions all center upon claimed violations of either relevant Federal Personnel Manual (FPM) and/or agency regulation, the Back Pay Act of 1966 as amended, the statute itself, or other statutes pertaining to the employee relations function in the Federal sector. Case law analysis structured around these four categories suggests that for an arbitrator in a Federal sector dispute to direct a particular remedy, his/her award must satisfy the following prerequisites: the arbitrator must ensure that the remedy directed and/or the management action necessary to implement that remedy are not barred by relevant statute or FPM regulation; in cases involving remedies of retroactive promotion and/or backpay awards, there must be a finding that an 'unjustified or unwarranted personnel action' has occurred; and given that threshold finding, the arbitrator must determine, at least in effect, that 'but for' the 'unjustified or unwarranted personnel action,' the grievant(s) would have been treated in a particular manner. Three primary factors limit the remedial discretion of labor arbitration but are outside the central focus of this analysis. Forty-nine footnotes are included.