Category Archives: Privacy

WHAT SHOULD NOT HAPPEN WHEN YOU CALL IN SICK I’ll bet that what happened in this recent case is very, very common. An employee, Jade, called in to say she needed to be hospitalized due to stomach pains and needed … Continue reading

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$63 MILLION PAYOUT COMING YOUR WAY FEDSCOOP has reported that the courts have approved this multi-million dollar settlement covering those folks damaged by the privacy hack of OPM files.  Here is the FEDSCOOP story and a link in it to … Continue reading

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UNION REP TEST #4 (EEO- Medical Information Privacy) The rehabilitation Act prohibits managers from disclosing physical or mental medical information they have about an employee to anyone without a legitimate reason to know.  Nonetheless, managers repeatedly ignore the rule and … Continue reading

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DOES THE OSC OWE THIS BEDFORD, MA. VA EMPLOYEE AN APOLOGY AND LOTS OF CASH? Although the Privacy Act was passed over 40 years ago, that doesn’t mean that everyone is following it.  For example, the President’s newly appointed Special Counsel … Continue reading

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MSPB NEEDLESSLY EMBARRASSED THIS FDIC EMPLOYEE Not long ago we ran across an MSPB case filed by an FDIC manager challenging his demotion and reassignment for having a sexual relationship with a bargaining unit employee who reported to him. Although … Continue reading

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RETIRED STEWARDS’ AND OFFICERS’ JOBS JUST GOT TOUGHER In the early days of the labor law, FLRA made it quite clear that former employees or even those who had never been employed by a federal agency could hold any representational … Continue reading

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10 NEW (AND LEGAL) WAYS AGENCIES CAN SPY ON EMPLOYEES A union not only works on current employee problems, but also looks ahead to looming ones. Agency spying on employees (or monitoring, if you want to be polite) is one … Continue reading

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FMLA & SICK LEAVE RECORD RULES EEOC has very specific rules about where employee FMLA and sick leave medical documents can be stored. If the agency violates them, they may owe the employee money damages—as a recent Dept. of Justice … Continue reading

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UNION BOOSTS CUBICLE PRIVACY NTEU won a FSIP decision in early August requiring the agency (EPA, Region 7) to not only give unit employees cubicle walls that had 46 inch high solid material bases, but to also add 22 additional … Continue reading

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ZIP IT! – WHEN MANAGERS VIOLATE YOUR PRIVACY        This is not the first time we have written about managers who either can’t keep their mouth shut or their documents clean.  The newest example is the Chief of Dental Services who … Continue reading

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