DOES FMLA COVER TRAVEL TIME?
Those of us actually engaged in the practice of employee rights accepted long ago that an employee’s time traveling to and from a location where s/he provides covered FMLA assistance is covered as FMLA leave. President Trump’s staff, however, thought we all needed to hear something from our dear leader’s own people to allow this. Maybe all that dust and flying asbestos from ripping down the east wing confused them enough to think we were just as confused as those White House intellects. In any event, they just issued an opinion letter on the issue. Jeff Nowak, who may be America’s leading thinker about FMLA just posted a piece on his blog addressing the issue. Even though he writes for employers, we find his advice for union reps as well. So, we suggest you click over to his latest “FMLA Insight” post for some helpful information.
If you know of some employees who have been denied FMLA leave for their travels, now is as good a time as any to contact them and file a grievance. Given that an agency could be liable for tens of thousands of dollars in attorney fees if it forces the union to arbitrate for even an hour of retroactive FMLA leave, these dispute should settle easily.
IS THAT A TRUMP BUMP I SEE?
As the year ends, many unions are filing their annual LM-2 reports outlining their financial situations. One of the most prominent federal employee union to do so, the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), is showing a bump as big as Octomom’s. Line 20 of its latest report shows that in comparison to last year’s report it has added about 12,000 new members for about a 14% increase. WOW! We would love to attribute it to the superb legal work by the more than 80 lawyers it employs, or the hundreds of dedicated local chapter leaders. But in fairness the biggest thing that happened to NTEU this year is Trump’s revenge-driven executive order to take collective bargaining rights away from most of the union’s bargaining units. While I was worried that the EO would be the beginning of the end for NTEU and other unions, it is thrilling to see Trump’s spiteful order blow up in his face. It appears that it drove thousands of federal employees in only about a dozen agencies to admit that unions, not Trump or his political party posse, have their best interest at the top of their agenda. Let’s hope this is only the first of many great LM-2 reports.
EEOC ORDERS NO CONTACT (AND MORE) AFTER SEXUAL HARASSMENT
An HHS employee, Ileana, alleged that she was sexually harassed by the Agency’s Deputy Director (DD), who touched her leg, rubbed her shoulders, stared at her chest, looked down her blouse, and repeatedly asked her out to lunch and dinner. She maintained that she rebuffed DD’s advances and told him to stop his behavior, but he did not do so. She further alleged that when she rebuffed his advances, DD punished her by assigning her extra duties, refusing her requests for training, assigning her duties outside her position description. Finally, she alleged that DD would often call Complainant into his office to “vent” which often resulted in DD throwing pencils and pens across the room. What did EEOC do about it once it upheld her charges? It imposed an order that included five kinds of remedies. First, … Continue reading
BEING A RESPONSIBLE UNION MEMBER
There is more to it than paying dues and voting in the union election. While it would be great if more folks volunteered to serve as officers or stewards or even to recruit new members, at a minimum you should know your rights within the union as a member. These are in addition to any rights in the collective bargaining Agreement with the agency. The U.S. Dep’t. of Labor posts a great deal of information about union member rights. Below are just a few of the questions they answer on their website.
- What are the standards of conduct provisions of the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA)?
- What rights are guaranteed to me as a union member under the Bill of Rights for members of labor organizations?
- I believe my union has violated the Bill of Rights. What can I do?
- Can I get a copy of my collective bargaining agreement from OLMS?
- What type of financial information does a union disclose in its annual financial report filed with OLMS?
- How can I get a copy of a report that has been filed with OLMS?
- I believe an officer in my union is misusing union funds. What can I do?
- What are the guidelines for conducting union officer elections?
- I do not believe my union has been conducting its union officer elections properly. What can I do?
- I do not believe my union has represented me adequately. Can I file a complaint with your office regarding the matter?
IRS-NTEU MEMBERS CELEBRATE NEGOTIATED MONETARY AWARDS
Anytime an agency distributes tens of millions for cash awards to its best performing employees is a great time for a celebration. This includes not only one-time cash awards for high performance, but also quality step increases (QSI’s) for the best of the best. There are also more cash awards for those bilingual employees who voluntarily use their multi-language skills to deal with taxpayers who do not speak English well-enough to work through the arcane terms of tax law. But maybe the best part of this award process is that the system was established through negotiations after NTEU demanded that bonus money be handed out more objectively. That was about three decades ago when NTEU… Continue reading
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MSPB WATERS DOWN THE KALKINES RIGHT
While the Commander-in-Chief is busy redecorating the oval office in a style that can only be described as neo-bordello, his bouncers at the MSPB have been chipping away at the Constitutional rights of federal employees. For longer than most of our readers have been alive the Supreme Court has held that a public employee “…cannot be discharged simply because he invokes his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination in refusing to respond.” This is called the Kalkines right after the name of the case it came from. The court spelled out a two-part test that public employees only “subject themselves to dismissal if they refuse to account for their performance of their public trust, after proper proceedings, which do not involve an attempt to coerce them to relinquish their constitutional rights.” Nonetheless, the MSPB Trumpettes recently added a third element when they upheld the termination of an IRS supervisor (Michelle Shows) who refused to answer a question when being grilled by her supervisor because… Continue reading
WHAT THE $%#& AFGE?
The D.C Court of Appeals recently issued a decision of minor significance to all us union advocates. But it contained “alleged” details about a union leader’s behavior that are so outrageous that it causes me to wonder who is in charge at AFGE. Here is what the federal court wrote to describe what a union member said about her local. Continue reading
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY PROTECTIONS FOR FEDS – RECENT LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS
DOJ is busy trying to legally substantiate paying Trump $230 million for enduring the same process every other suspected and/or indicted citizen endures-but without being paid. But it somehow found a few minutes to address the right of federal employees to situational telework to practice their religion. Click here for a legal memo it issued confirming that feds do have the statutory right to this. It should help when some supervisor reacts from the gut and denies some union member’s request.