OUR MOTTO
"Respect for Employee Rights, Ideas, Insights, Participation and Unions Generates the Power to Improve Government."Search Fedsmill
Category Archives: Arbitration
TEST YOURSELF- The Correct OT Remedy Let’s assume that you find management has incorrectly told some employees over the last nine months that they may only be compensated with comp time to work extra hours, not time-and-one-half overtime pay. Then, … Continue reading
WHEN THE GERMANS BOMBED PEARL HARBOR One of the great lines from film is the Animal House passage where one of the frat boys declares that nothing is over until the frat declares it over—just like it wasn’t over for … Continue reading
FLRA EXPANDS ARBITRATORS’ POWERS Up until last week, once an arbitrator issued a final decision he/she was done with that case and had no right to issue a supplemental or follow-up award. The arbitrator was considered to be “functus officio,” … Continue reading
Posted in Arbitration, FLRA
Leave a comment
UNTIMELY DISCIPLINE SUGGESTS CBP MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER What does it say about an agency when it takes months or even years after it becomes aware of an employee’s misconduct to discipline the employee? We think it suggests a serious mental illness … Continue reading
Posted in Arbitration, Discipline/Adverse Action
Tagged Multiple Personality Disorder
Leave a comment
FLRA ANNOUNCES WEB-BASED ARBITRATION TRAINING The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) announced recently that its web-based Comprehensive Arbitration Training is now available on-line. The training is yet another example of the FLRA’s ongoing efforts to better serve the labor-management community, providing members with … Continue reading
AFGE WINS WTH UNCOMMON DEFENSES TO PERFORMANCE CRITICISM If the average federal employee only knew how vulnerable he/she is to being fired for performance-based reasons, employee pharmaceutical bills would double. Management can unilaterally set the performance standards, need only produce … Continue reading
TAX-RELATED OVERPAYMENTS MAY BE WAIVED Here is a new one that surprises even us. A federal agency, ironically the IRS, failed to withhold from the biweekly salary checks of its employees in Florence, KY the full income tax amount they … Continue reading
FDIC FLIPS, FLOPS, FLAPS, & FLAILS The FDIC leadership is currently doing its best impression of a fish tightly caught on the end of an angler’s line. It’s struggling mightily in a desperate attempt to break free of the hook … Continue reading
ARE YOU “GETTIN’ ENOUGH”– FROM GRIEVANCES? (Part 1) One of the first mistakes a union can make when drafting a grievance is to not ask for enough of a remedy. Not only does the grievant potentially lose something she might … Continue reading
Posted in Arbitration, Grievance/Arbitration, Remedies
Tagged AFGE, FLRA, NAGE, NFFE, NLRBU, NTEU
Leave a comment
MSPB’S 13TH DOUGLAS FACTOR 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 is … Continue reading
Posted in Arbitration, Discipline/Adverse Action, MSPB
Tagged Douglas, Medical, Mental, Mitigation
Leave a comment
