Monthly Archives: September 2014

Be sure to check back in one week when we will publish the best articles about bargaining that we have issued over the last three years.

Posted in Union Administration | Tagged | Leave a comment

WANT TO KNOW WHAT WORK YOUR AGENCY HAS CONTRACTED OUT-OR WILL? FLRA has made it very clear that while unions cannot negotiate over an agency’s substantive decision to contract out work, they can negotiate over impact and implementation issues. (See NAGE, 61 … Continue reading

Posted in A-76/Contracting, Information | Tagged , | 1 Comment

WHAT DO SELECTING OFFICIALS OWE BQ CANDIDATES–AGAIN? We can’t say this often enough.  When Selecting Officials non-select BQ candidates, especially those with higher scores than the selectee, the Selecting Official (SO) must provide the non-selected applicant something more than a … Continue reading

Posted in Promotion/Hiring | Tagged | Leave a comment

GAO GIVES UNIONS A WAY TO BUILD THEIR IMAGE, RELATIONSHIPS, & MEMBERSHIP An agency recently asked the General Accountability Office (Comptroller General) if it could use agency funds to buy refreshments for an employee CFC rally designed to boost contributions. … Continue reading

Posted in Membership Building | Tagged , | Leave a comment

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS WRITTEN GRIEVANCE? Look over the facts listed below to see if you can spot the potential problem in how this grievance was written.  Sarah Smith, our fictional employee, did not make the Best Qualified List for … Continue reading

Posted in Grievance/Arbitration, Test Yourself | Tagged | Leave a comment

A TRAVEL REIMBURSEMENT TIP Suppose an agency decides that the most advantageous way for you to travel from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Billings, Montana for three days of official duty there is by air with a rental car while there. … Continue reading

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EEOC IDENTIFIES COMMON ERRORS AGENCIES MAKE WHEN DISMISSING EEO COMPLAINTS The EEOC just published a report showing that about one-third of the time an agency dismissed a discrimination complaint on procedural grounds it is wrong. If your local represents members … Continue reading

Posted in EEO/Discrimination | Tagged | Leave a comment

NLRB DECISION SUGGESTS FLRA GET TOUGHER The NLRB, which many judges have told the Authority to look to for guidance, just clobbered an employer that bargained in bad faith by ordering it to pay the union negotiators’ salaries and costs … Continue reading

Posted in Bargaining | Tagged | Leave a comment

FLRA WANTS INPUT ON ITS “LICENSE TO KILL” CASE The Authority recently called for input from all interested parties on a case before it.  An ALJ has recommended that an employee of an agency that is excluded from coverage under … Continue reading

Posted in Investigations | Tagged | Leave a comment

TEST YOUR ADVERSE ACTION DEFENSE KNOWLEDGE The MSPB has held that an agency is obligated to impose similar adverse action penalties on similarly situated employees. But that does not mean comparison between any two employees works   Here are the facts … Continue reading

Posted in Discipline/Adverse Action, Test Yourself | Tagged | Leave a comment