Posted on April 22, 2025 by AdminUN

WHAT CAN UNIONS DO ANYMORE FOR MEMBERS?

Now that Trump has declared that suddenly hundreds of thousands of feds are involved in national security work, those employees’ unions have lost the right to bargain contracts, take grievances to arbitration, and demand certain kinds of information.  Consequently, a lot of employees are probably questioning why they should bother to pay dues anymore.  Well, there are a bundle of good reasons to remain union members that The Revengernator has not taken away from employees and their unions. For example, unions can still represent employees before third party officials in the following situations: Continue reading →

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Posted on April 22, 2025 by AdminUN

USERRA PROTECTIONS BROADENED BY DOLE ACT

We are passing along a very useful article from a law firm about how those feds with military service, including those feds who are FEMA Reservists, now have greater protections under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act.  It is not something that comes up often for union reps, but that does not mean it can be ignored. Here is the article.

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Posted on April 21, 2025 by AdminUN

DON’T BET AGAINST THIS HAPPENING NEAR YOU

Somewhere early in this new White House Administration some probationary employee is going to be fired because some higher up thinks the employee does not support the new President’s political views or because some campaign contributor to the new President’s campaign complained about the employee.  When that does happen a lot of folks are going to tell the probationer that s/he has no right of appeal—but every one of them will be wrong. When a probationer is fired for what appears to be political reason they can appeal to MSPB. There is a wonderful article by an attorney at Shaw, Bransford and Roth entitled, MSPB: Agencies Terminate Probationary Employees for Political Reasons At Their Own Peril .  We recommend you look it over just so that you can be on the lookout for one of your members being fired or political reasons.  In the case discussed in the article the employee got his job back, back pay, and career status.

 

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Posted on April 15, 2025 by AdminUN

BE CAREFUL GRIEVING RIF’S

RIFs are popping up all over government and right behind them are union grievances alleging a ULP and/or a violation of the negotiated agreement’s provisions on a RIF. But what about the Trump order obliterating unions’ right to represent?  If unions cannot overturn it, a contract grievance might be ruled void and never get to an arbitrator. So, unions need to do something now to protect against losing any opportunity to challenge a RIF. And that something is to… Continue reading →

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Posted on April 8, 2025 by AdminUN

THE RIGHT TO USE ONE’S OWN CAR

Lots of feds travel for the job and lots of them are told to use a rental car for the travel rather than their own vehicle.  When a Border Patrol employee decided to use her own car instead, her agency refused to pay her the mileage costs between her hotel and job site for the 50 days she was there. The agency simply said she was not authorized to charge for  her POV, but told to share a rental car with another Agent. So, the employee filed an appeal with the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (CBCA) seeking reimbursement for about 2,000 miles. The Board dispensed with the case easily by  telling Customs and Border Protection to simply read the rules. It pointed to two in particular. Continue reading →

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Posted on April 8, 2025 by AdminUN

WHAT IF YOU CAN PERFORM  YOUR ESSENTIAL DUTIES WITHOIUT ACCOMMODATION

An employee admitted under oath that he could perform the essential duties of his position without a disability accommodation.  So, it was no surprise when the Federal District Court held that he was not entitled to an accommodation. But it was a surprise when the Federal Court of Appeals ruled that even employees able to do the essential duties without an accommodation can be entitled to the accommodation nonetheless. Continue reading →

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Posted on April 2, 2025 by AdminUN

CBPO SPECIAL RETIREMENT COVERAGE ABUSE

Customs and Border Protection Officers (CBPOs) have moderately different retirement benefits than most other feds.  It is because they are considered law enforcement personnel. Not long ago their HR office informed an employee, Stacey, that she was not eligible to receive CBPO enhanced Special Retirement Coverage (SRC), contrary to what it had previously indicated when she entered on duty in 2010. HR said it was because her duties as a CBPO were considered “secondary” and therefore not eligible. Continue reading →

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Posted on April 2, 2025 by AdminUN

THIS HAS GOT TO STOP

One of the union administration issues we are not going to let go of is where a union president fires a long-time staff member without appeal rights or severance pay. The examples of abuse just keep coming. For instance, a union staff supervisor, let’s call her Monica, after 14 years working for a union was called in and summarily fired by the National President (NP).  Her “offense” was that when visiting a local on business, she got into a conversation with the local officials who asked about the NP’s health. The NP was furious that she had talked about his health with members although his particular health problem was obvious to anyone. He announced that he could no longer trust her and had her escorted to her office to pick up personal items and then walked out the front door.  No written charges, no appeal right, no severance pay, and an employment record that now says she was fired. Continue reading →

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Posted on April 2, 2025 by AdminUN

WHOOPS, I FORGOT MY PASSPORT, WALLET, LUGGAGE, ETC.

What are feds to do if they have booked an airline flight, but when they get to the airport they realize they left something vital at home? They rebook the flight, of course, usually through SATO. But who pays for the costs of the rebooking? The employee who made the mistake or the agency? The Department of the Navy decided that the employee would have to pay because he was not a “prudent traveler.”  The CBCA decided Navy was wrong. Continue reading →

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Posted on March 25, 2025 by AdminUN

LOOKING AHEAD TO THE TRUMP RIFS

At the White House’s request agencies are preparing their systems to execute RIF’s in the next few months. One defense to a RIF is to argue that it has an inordinate impact on one or more classes of employees protected under the Civil Rights Acts. Because every employee is protected in one class or another under those laws, including the white male, unions should have already started to request the data they will need to determine if there will be an illegal adverse impact on any class.  The easiest way to do that is to file an information request with the agency requesting the performance appraisal scores of each employee for the last four years by race, gender, national origin, age, year of score, etc. It  would be wise to request other data as well, e.g., each employee’s job title, grade, location, SCD date, veteran’s status, competitive area, competitive level, etc. And of course, you do not need to have the agency identify the employee’s name or other PPI. Raw data will do. Agencies will use these scores to decide how many extra points to give employees in determining their RIF scores. The more points, the less likelihood that the employee will be RIF’d. For example, …   Continue reading →

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