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.

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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A NOVEL REMOVAL SETTLEMENT OPTION FEDSMILL.com exists to spread good ideas among union leaders throughout government no matter who thought of it.  The more each of us knows, the more powerful we are.  We ran across a real good one … Continue reading

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RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION COVERAGE EXPANDING? A couple of years ago we posted an article entitled, “Church Lady Smites DOD.”  It discussed an EEOC case in which the employee had asked that her work hours be adjusted so she could not just … Continue reading

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