Monthly Archives: November 2015

TIMELINESS OF GRIEVANCES VERSUS REMEDY TIME PERIODS: LMR RUSSIAN ROULETTE Let’s assume that a union filed a timely institutional grievance on May 1, 2014 claiming that its members had been denied full travel mileage reimbursement as required by the agreement … Continue reading

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CHURCH LADY SMITES DOD Score another one for all the Sunday church-going Christians in their battle to spend their Sabbath worshiping.  This time DOD learned the hard way that it must offer a “reasonable accommodation” to allow employees to practice … Continue reading

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UNIONS NEED MANAGEMENT’S HELP ON THIS Tucked away in a little visited part of the labor law (5 USC 7120(c)) is an obligation that unions with exclusive recognition over federal employees must file annual financial reports with the IRS and … Continue reading

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WORKERS COMP FOR THE OVERWORKED The Department of Labor recently decided a case that reminds practitioners of an overworked employee’s right to collect workers compensation. In August 2013 an employee filed an occupational disease claim alleging that he sustained a … Continue reading

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WHO IS JOE HILL? SPRINGSTEEN KNOWS Joe Hill is an American labor movement legend whose stories and songs contributed heavily to the growth of unions in the early part of the last century.  Because only die-hard unionists may know who … Continue reading

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A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO LABOR POLITICS With national politics heating up, we thought you might enjoy a story out of the Washington Post. It does a good job of explaining the different factions with America’s labor unions and why they … Continue reading

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PREGNANT@WORK.ORG The Center for WorkLife Law and the University of California (Hastings) has just made life a little easier for those of us practitioners who have pregnant employees or members. Their web site pulls together lots of useful information, e.g., … Continue reading

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HOW MUCH BACK PAY IS TOO MUCH? There have been many multi-million dollar arbitration awards in the federal sector.  Not long ago, the AFL-CIO unions teamed up to get $80 million out of the Indian Health Service. We also remember … Continue reading

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$120,000 LIGHT BULB If managers ever needed an example of why it is always easier to work out a quick, voluntary agreement to a problem-even when they have doubts about the validity of an employee’s problem, this is the case.  … Continue reading

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IS AGENCY USE OF GPS MONITORING I&I NEGOTIABLE? FLRA has not stepped up to this question yet, but sooner or later an agency is going to use this equipment to monitor employees conduct, if not performance. But it is fair … Continue reading

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