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.

THE FORWARD-LOOKING NEGOTIATOR Federal employee unions have been bargaining for over 35 years now—and a few for over 50 years.  So, it is reasonable to ask when all the reasonable issues will have been addressed and there is little to … Continue reading

Posted in Bargaining | Tagged | Leave a comment

THE AUTOMATED FORMAL DISCUSSION The statute has been in place for over 30 years now, but FLRA case law guidance on what is and is not a formal discussion is still next to useless for practitioners.  (Check out “FLRA FUBAR: … Continue reading

Posted in Bargaining, Formal Discussions | Tagged | Leave a comment

UPDATE ON BARGAINING OVER WORKLOAD CHANGES Two years ago we pointed out what we believed to be the error in FLRA’s thinking when it held that an agency can stand by and watch employee workloads skyrocket out of sight due … Continue reading

Posted in Bargaining | Tagged | Leave a comment

MANAGEMENT LIABLE IF PUBLIC HARASSES EMPLOYEE What can an employee do if a member of the public regularly sexually harasses her?  For example, suppose the person regularly makes sexually suggestive comments, perhaps touches the employee on the arm or shoulder, … Continue reading

Posted in EEO/Discrimination | Tagged | Leave a comment

CONGRATS ON AFGE’s VA SCANDAL RESPONSE (How Scandals Are Planned In Advance) Congress may not pass any laws, budgets, treaties or other legislation, but it sure does have a guaranteed way to generate scandals in federal agencies.  Since the media … Continue reading

Posted in Lobbying | Tagged | Leave a comment

ADVOCATES’ ALERT: AT LEAST MAKE THE ARGUMENT The Authority just posted a new decision and the lesson for advocates on either side of the arbitration table is that they should get all their arguments on the record, even if they … Continue reading

Posted in Arbitration | Tagged | Leave a comment

TELECOMMUTING CAN BE A REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION Just a few weeks ago another federal circuit court held that a disabled employee’s request to telecommute can be a reasonable accommodation.  If an employer wants to deny the requested accommodation, it has the … Continue reading

Posted in ADA/ADAAA | Tagged | Leave a comment

WHICH GS GRADES PAY BELOW THE MINIMUM WAGE? Thanks to SEIU and a few other justice-minded folks the City of Seattle has set the minimum wage at $15.00 an hour, giving over 100,000 workers around the city a raise.  While … Continue reading

Posted in Compensation | Tagged | Leave a comment

DETAILS: WHAT ABOUT THOSE LEFT BEHIND? Most agreements contain a clause that spells out how employees are to be selected for details, but what about the employees who are left behind when someone leaves on a detail or reassignment?  The … Continue reading

Posted in Bargaining, Details | Tagged | 1 Comment

NAVY DELAY TOSSES $300,000 OVERBOARD These stories just keep on coming thanks to less-than-stellar agency efforts to provide reasonable accommodations–and employees willing to stand up for themselves.  EEOC just issued a new decision ordering the Department of the Navy to … Continue reading

Posted in EEO/Disabilities, Reasonable Accommodations | Tagged | Leave a comment