Monthly Archives: October 2016

THE LAW OF CONTRACT RATIFICATION: TEST YOURSELF A 2016 decision out of the Authority has added to the body of law about how unions ratify collective bargaining agreements. See AFGE, Local 1815 and Dept. of the Army, 69 FLRA 309 … Continue reading

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IS THIS A VIOLATION OF LAW? Let’s just consider this a hypothetical. Suppose, one federal union allows it legal staff to keep any attorney fees they collect that exceed the attorney’s annual salary from the union. For example, if the … Continue reading

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HOW TO GET FLRA TO BLOCK AN FSIP DECISION More than a few parties, whether labor or management, who have lost a case before the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP) have concluded that the decision is illegal, if not even … Continue reading

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TEN WAYS TO REVERSE A UNION PRESIDENT’S DECISIONS When union presidents abuse (or simply misuse) power, members have a few options available to bring the union’s CEO back to the reality that they are presidents, not potentates nor pontiffs. Given … Continue reading

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DISCIPLINING THE EMPLOYEE ON INTERMITTENT FMLA LEAVE Although there are some minor differences between the federal employees’ FMLA rights and everyone else in the country, they are not big enough that advice written for private sector employers and employees cannot … Continue reading

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CBP IMPORT SPECIALIST LOSES AWARDS-RELATED RETALIATION CLAIM A new decision out of the MSPB not only highlights how complicated some appeal actions can be, but also raises the question of why the employee chose to represent himself rather than have … Continue reading

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AFGE REACHES NEW AGREEMENT FOR TSA EMPLOYEES There has never been any doubt as to how much AFGE wanted to represent TSA employees once the agency was created in the aftermath of the 9/11 disaster. When Congress and a union-busting … Continue reading

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MSPB’S 13TH DOUGLAS FACTOR (Revised) MSPB and virtually every arbitrator use the 12 so-called Douglas factors to decide whether to mitigate an adverse action penalty.  (See a complete list of the Douglas factors at the end of this posting.) It … Continue reading

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ILLEGAL CLAUSES IN SEPARATION & SETTLEMENT AGREEMENTS Every once in a while a dispute is ended with an agreement where the employee receives some form of compensation in returning for dropping a claim against an agency. The law has been … Continue reading

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NEGOTIATORS, “LET’S BE CAREFUL OUT THERE.” Wandering around the streets and back alleys of a collective bargaining neighborhood can be very dangerous—even fatal to one’s future career prospects as a negotiator. A new FLRA decision reminds us of a signature … Continue reading

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