Author Archives: AdminUN

About AdminUN

FEDSMILL staff has over 40 years of federal sector labor relations experience on the union as well as management side of the table and even some time as a neutral.

MILESTONE MARCH March 2015 has been a very good month for FEDSMILL.com.  We posted our 500th article since beginning this venture in September 2011.  We also set a new personal record for the number of articles read in a single … Continue reading

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DUTY TIME AND THE NCAA TOURNAMENT As March Madness continues to escalate over the next two weeks, there will inevitably be employees disciplined for checking in on their favorite team on duty time via agency computers. So, we thought we … Continue reading

Posted in Discipline/Adverse Action | Tagged | 1 Comment

THE RIGHT TO A SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETER EEOC has said it all before, but yet another agency needed it said again when an employee with a severe hearing disability was not provided a sign language interpreter. EEOC pointed out that … Continue reading

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FORMER EXECUTIVE VP PROPOSES NTEU CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS Frank Ferris, former National Executive VP of NTEU, spent 38 years with NTEU operating under a union constitution put in place in the mid-60s.  The 60’s were very different times for NTEU.  It … Continue reading

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EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT BLOG The Feds have adopted the employee engagement concept.  Some do a good job; others are just terrible at it.  Many locals around the country have appointed someone below the level of the president to take the lead … Continue reading

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FIVE UNION RIGHTS YOU MAY NOT REMEMBER We all know that union activists cannot be fired, denied a benefit, or even poorly evaluated if the decision is based on or even related to our choice to be union activist.  But … Continue reading

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WHAT DO YOU THINK? LEGAL OR ILLEGAL? Can a union constitution prohibit members from holding more than one elected office at a time even if at different levels of the organization, e.g., local president and regional vice president on the … Continue reading

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DEPT. OF LABOR & IRS REPORT PROBLEMS? Given the political climate, unions need to avoid any suggestion of internal problems, especially federal employee unions which are regulated by these two agencies.  So, imagine the fallout if AFGE had any significant … Continue reading

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ATTENTION FMLA ENTHUSIASTS AND ENFORCERS If you are the person in the local who handles all the FMLA cases or you are negotiating a contract that will address FMLA matters, then you need to open the gift the American Bar … Continue reading

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  NEGOTIABILITY: FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS A new FLRA negotiability decision (NTEU, 68 FLRA 334 (2015)  makes it a little bit easier for unions to enforce merit-based promotion decisions—if they can convince management to include the concepts in their collective … Continue reading

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