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.

FMLA OFTEN REQUIRES PERFORMANCE STANDARD ADJUSTMENTS Often an employer must adjust an employee’s performance standards once it approves the employee’s FMLA leave request.  Not long ago a Federal Circuit Court spelled it out for LR practitioners on both sides of … Continue reading

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DISCIPLINE’S “DISPARATE PENALTIES” DEFENSE MSPB just issued a decision that should help unions successfully represent disciplined employees.  It clarified, and some say expanded, the union’s ability to argue that any penalty must be mitigated, if not totally overturned, if the … Continue reading

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COUNCIL OF PRISON LOCALS WINS OT PAY FOR PRE-SHIFT WORK Most feds know that you have to be paid for any work they do, but not many recognize that the things they do before their shift to get ready for … Continue reading

Posted in FLSA/Overtime | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

“DE MINIMIS” DOCTRINE TOO COMPLEX EVEN FOR ALJs? Not long ago FEDSMILL.com posted an article entitled “Die, De Minimis Die” to shine a light on how elusively complex and high risk the de minimis doctrine is for practitioners.  It may … Continue reading

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NRC NUKES ITS EMPLOYEES, THEIR KIDS AND THEIR COUNTY The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) just dropped a megaton of bad news on its own employees. It is withholding everyone’s annual performance bonus due this month, even managers’ below the SES … Continue reading

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FMLA LEAVE TO COVER VACATIONS– We recommend that you check out the blog page cited below.  A judge has held that employees are entitled to FMLA leave if they are the care giver for a covered member of the family and that … Continue reading

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“SHHH!” COMMAND COSTS MANAGEMENT OVER $12,000 A manager warned a maintenance employee to be careful who she told about how offended she was by finding a pornographic magazine in the restroom. The supervisor may have just been trying to get … Continue reading

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CRITICAL CONTRACT CLAUSES (#2)- Mandatory Suggestion Awards Agencies pay consulting firms millions to suggest ways to improve operations. But very few union contracts force agencies to fairly compensate its own employees when their suggestions are accepted–and that is hurting employees … Continue reading

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CHECK OUT THE “COMPARE CONTRACTS” BUTTON ABOVE FEDSMILL.com has assembled copies of significant labor-management master agreements in the federal government and made them available in the Menu bar button above entitled “Compare Contracts.” These contracts will give you a good … Continue reading

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DISCLOSURE OF FMLA MEDICAL INFO TO UNION REQUIRED  In the right-hand column of the FEDSMILL.com page we track headlines off web sites of interests to federal employees. One of them deals with FMLA case law and it recently posted an … Continue reading

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