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.

NATIONAL UNION PRESIDENT DESERVES PRAISE High on a very short list of things that bother me about unions is the hypocrisy of their national leaders. They demand that agency executives accept certain work protections for their employees and stand accountable … Continue reading

Posted in Union Administration | Tagged | 2 Comments

LAW FIRM GENERATES $45 MILLION FOR CBP FEMALE EMPLOYEES We just read that the Gilbert Employment Law (GEL) Group has racked up another huge $$$ win for CBP employees. Although federal employees can only be represented by their union if … Continue reading

Posted in Pregnancy | Tagged | Leave a comment

ILLEGAL TELEWORK DEALS What do you call it when a bargaining unit employee asks her manager to allow her to telework, the manager agrees, and they work out the details of when, where, and under what conditions? “Illegal” is what … Continue reading

Posted in Bargaining Law | Tagged | 2 Comments

EEOC REQUIRES LGBTQIA+ HARASSMENT TRAINING FOR EVERYONE  This is a new one for us.  Apparently, the agency supervisors allowed employees to so harass a transgender co-worker that EEOC has ordered it to train all its employees in victim’s work area … Continue reading

Posted in Co-worker Harassment, Gender/Sex | Tagged | Leave a comment

TWO ROOKIE MISTAKES A recent FLRA decision opens with these three sentences, “In this case, Arbitrator Anthony R. Orman, found that the Agency violated Article 21, Section 4 of the parties’ collective-bargaining agreement by failing to distribute overtime in a “fair … Continue reading

Posted in Grievance/Arbitration | Tagged | Leave a comment

THANKS, DIRECTOR SHRIVER While he would have much preferred a career as a star quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles,  all us feds are far better with him scoring big changes in the human resources arena.  Rob Shriver has been acting … Continue reading

Posted in OPM | Tagged | Leave a comment

30-YEAR-OLD BACK PAY CASE Occasionally, an agency asserts that it cannot legally grant back pay for claims more than six years old due to appropriation laws.  Given that it can take more than six years to resolve certain cases, the … Continue reading

Posted in Back Pay | Tagged | Leave a comment

INADEQUATE AGENCY NOTICE GIVES UNION A BIG BARGAINING BONUS (PT. 2) NEGOTIATOR ALERT!     What does it mean for the union when management gives it advance notice of a proposed change, but the notice omits some of the details?  It means a … Continue reading

Posted in Bargaining Law | Tagged | Leave a comment

BARGAINING BY THE NUMBERS TRAINING PROGRAM Getting ready to negotiate a term contract? Or is it mid-term bargaining that lies ahead for you? With decades of experience with both as well as from both sides of the bargaining table, we … Continue reading

Posted in Bargaining, Training | Tagged | Leave a comment

THE  INTELLECTUAL DISHONESTY OF “COVERED-BY” ADVOCATES There is an ALJ case lingering in the FLRA decision pipeline that will once again put the “covered-by” (CB) defense up for review. (See DoD and NEA) Having watched the CB defense come into … Continue reading

Posted in Bargaining Law | Tagged | Leave a comment