Posted on September 15, 2026 by AdminUN

EXEMPTIONS FROM GROUP MEETINGS

These meetings can border on mental torture triggering thoughts of war crime prosecutions.  But they can also be physical torture for those disabled employees who are often required to put their normal reasonable accommodations on hold.  That is what happened at Pete Hegseth’s shop when an employee was ordered to attend a two-hour meeting even though Pete’s shop would not provide her the normal reasonable accommodations during the meeting that she was entitled to back in her workplace.  While it may only have been a two hour loss of her accommodations, EEOC recently held that violated the disability related laws and regulations. Aside from ordering Warrior Pete and his high testosterone staffers to not do that again it made Pete write the employee a check for over $11,000 to cover the damage.  This is another one of those situations that occurs all too often in the workplace such that unions should make employees aware that, absent an undue hardship, once an accommodation is provided it cannot be put on a temporary hold. For more details, check out Gaynell A., v. Pete Hegseth, Secretary, Dep’t. of War (DLA), EEOC No. 2023004297 (2026)

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Posted on September 15, 2026 by AdminUN

WHEN IS GROUP MEETING CHATTER ILLEGAL?

Managers talk with employees all the time, individually, in regularly scheduled periodic meetings and even informally during breaks.  In my experience, it is not uncommon for an employee to ask a manager about a co-worker’s absence. It is also far too common for a manager to respond telling them that the co-worker is on sick leave due to some medical condition, e.g., pregnancy complications,hemorrhoids, colon problems, etc. While that kind of exchange happens often in federal and other workplaces, the manager violates the law when s/he discloses an absent employee’s medical condition. EEOC just reminded a National Park Service manager of that by finding he had violated the employee’s right to medical privacy by responding in detail to a question under the Rehabilitation Act and ordered the agency to give the employee over $12,000 to make up for that single, and often innocent, disclosure.  This is something unions should make their members very aware of, e.g., email them a copy of this post.   For more details, check out Sadie M., v. Douglas J. Burgum, Secretary, DoI (National Park Service), Agency. Appeal No. 2025002310 (2026).  You can also check out our index under the Medical Issues and Medical Privacy headings.

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Posted on September 10, 2026 by AdminUN

THE COMPLETE LIST OF TELEWORK REMEDIES

Hardly a week goes by without a union reporting a new arbitration decision finding the Trump Administration’s termination of telework agreements and practices illegal. While that is great, union’s need to insist on all the potential remedies that are appropriate to telework terminations. If they are just asking the arbitrator to order the agency cease and desist its termination efforts or to reinstate the prior telework arrangements, they are making a big mistake. There is a lot more to making unit employees whole for the damage done, e.g., back pay and more. So, for those unions waiting for the arbitrator to address the remedies, we thought it would be helpful to list ten or so corrective actions that should be taken. Continue reading →

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Posted on September 9, 2026 by AdminUN

ARE THE DOUGLAS FACTORS DEAD?

That is the title of a post from the folks at the Federal Employment Law Training Group (FELTG). Although the group’s primary mission is to train managers, I thought this post was reasonably balanced and recommend you read it by clicking here. While the initial reaction among most union reps is that termination of the Douglas Factors is terrible news it may be yet another White House screw up ranking up there with the reflecting pool fiasco, the Iranian war that was going to last a week or two, and the nearly trillion dollar tariff refunds.

As the FELTG folks point out, the MSPB reg does not prohibit agencies from continuing to use the Douglas Factors. Consequently, if an agency decides to stop using them, it must serve notice on the union, provide requested information, and complete negotiations before it does so. A failure to do so will undermine any disciplinary actions they take without automatically considering them. I can think of a number of proposals that would make any agency regret a decision to abandon them.

Another problem an agency faces if it abandons them is the mind-boggling ambiguity of the “totality of circumstances” (ToC) test MSPB suggests. That is a litigation storm waiting to happen, e.g., what is and is not included in the agency’s definition of the concept, are they applied uniformly or disparately, if another agency considers different factors under its ToC analysis does that suggest your agency got it wrong, do the pre-CSRA adverse action mitigation factors now apply, etc.? And just imagine the fun a union rep will have when a manager takes the stand and under oath has to explain what factors she considered under the ToC test and why she did not consider all the factors that others are using.

If I was still sitting back advising agency leaders about what to do with this latest stunt from the Mango Marvel’s people, I would tell them “to consider the source” and just hold tight.

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Posted on August 13, 2026 by AdminUN

DOREEN TAKES ON ENTIRE TRUMP FAMILY

I have known her for decades and while I have not always agreed with her decisions, there is no doubt in my mind that she will stand up to and fight anyone who threatens the members of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). Absolutely anyone! Last week she did it by calling out the entire Trump family not only on behalf of her members, but also everyone else in the country who  believes it was illegal for Trump to direct his appointees at the Treasury Department and IRS to give his entire clan immunity from income tax laws. She filed suit in federal court to challenge the legality of the President’s scam. Doreen is Doreen Greenwald, the President of NTEU. She spent most of her career before becoming the union leader at IRS chasing down business owners who tried to evade their tax obligations. Given Trump’s habit of using the government to seek revenge against anyone who offends him, she deserves a bundle of credit. Continue reading →

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Posted on August 11, 2026 by AdminUN

BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THOSE ARBITRATION ISSUE STATEMENTS

If you knew there was a child predator wandering the neighborhood you would be extra careful about letting your child leave the house.  Given that Trump has installed two union predators on the FLRA, we need to exercise the same care when we let a grievance leave our control.  FLRA showed that in a new case when it denied a part of a remedy an arbitrator awarded, blaming the union for not having properly written the issue statement. Continue reading →

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Posted on August 5, 2026 by AdminUN

OPM ADDRESSES WHAT IS AND ISN’T STILL NEGOTIABLE ON PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS

Now that we are moving to a forced distribution rating environment which will require each manager to brand some employees as the worst in the group even if they are performing successfully, OPM has put out its view of what is and isn’t negotiable.  The folks at Federal Managers Daily Report published a helpful piece on the OPM guidance which you can read by clicking here, but remember this is management’s opinion, not labor’s.  I will try to toss out some ideas of what union’s should demand to bargain over in the next few postings.  But in the meantime, think about demanding a deep data analysis of how these ratings are distributed.  If they are anything like how disciplinary actions are taken, minorities will get hit hard.  Similarly, women will likely get placed in the lower tiers more often than men.  This system is ready made for disparate treatment claims.  For example, what happens when a White male and a female Hispanic employee both get an overall Acceptable ratings, but she gets placed in a lower tier? Or even the other way around? There are no criteria for making the distinctions objective, leaving managers to defend their undocumented opinions in a discrimination hearing. The costs of the EEO investigations alone are going to make this a very expensive change–probably even more than the White House disco is costing America.

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Posted on August 2, 2026 by AdminUN

WANT A FED JOB? GET A TRUMP TATTOO

I’m kidding—or am I?  An AI start-up got headlines recently for announcing that the process for getting a job with it began with getting a tattoo of the company logo. What a great idea, right?  That would separate the applicants merely interested in a job anywhere from those willing to shed blood for the company, to declare their forever loyalty to the CEO’s vision, and, in the process, get the company some free advertising every time the interviewee raised an arm at a bar, ballgame, or gym. If our great Orange Oracle spotted the article, the odds are he has OPM working on it already. Perhaps they will offer applicants options for which Trump tattoo they want, e.g., the happy face one or the scowling face. Size and placement would also be optional–so long as it was publicly visible, e.g., on  the neck, face, back of the hand, etc. (After all, if Christian feds can walk around with a forehead smug on Ash Wednesday, why not a pix of the Prez for eternity?) It sure would beat the loyalty oath our leader wants feds to take that can be simply recited without any sincerity. The AI start-up’s tattooing plan was quickly dealt a death blow, probably by some woke Antifa communists immigrant lovers, who were uncomfortable with the idea of branding employees. But public opinion matters little at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  If it did, the White House might never have been ripped apart to make way for a dance hall.  Someone should start checking whether tattooing is substantively negotiable or will unions be limited to impact and implementation bargaining?

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Posted on July 29, 2026 by AdminUN

WHAT IS “THE HEIST?”

It is a newly released documentary about you.  More specifically, it recounts the 2025 chaos the Trump/DOGE madness created in government.  It details what to the 249-year- old American civil service established on the concept of political neutrality when these two boneheads fired 55,000 people, shutting entire agencies in the process.  It is something you should watch and circulate, especially to all those folks who think the DOGE purge made government more efficient or responsive. You can access it by clicking here.

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Posted on July 29, 2026 by AdminUN

NTEU GETS HUGE WIN FOR HHS PROBATIONERS

Early in his 2025 revenge tour against the federal civil service, Trump demanded that agencies purge as many probationers as they could.  Normally, he and any other President has the power to do that—if they do it according to the rules. But as our dear leader has shown repeatedly throughout his life, he feels rules are for other people. So, when the president’s toadies carried out his orders without any protest, it resulted in about 3,200 HHS employees losing their jobs instantly.  But rules are rules and if any union is good at enforcing them it is NTEU.  It not only alleged that the mass terminations allegedly for performance was an illegal attempt to avoid the due process RIF procedures of the contract and regulations, but also claimed implementing the terminations without bargaining violated federal law. And damned if it did not win at arbitration creating the potential for the arbitrator to order the retroactive reinstatement of the 3,200 along with any back pay, interest, and benefits they missed out on.  Continue reading →

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