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.

NEW LEADER TRAINING MANUAL That is what AFGE calls their 2023 booklet designed to help new (and not so new) local union leaders figure out how to handle all their responsibilities.  It is well-done and AFGE deserves compliments for making their material … Continue reading

Posted in Union Administration | Tagged | Leave a comment

THE LACTATION LOWDOWN AT LAREDO Well, if the Customs & Border Protection supervisors did not know about their lactation obligations they will soon.  EEOC just ordered the agency to “ provide at least eight (8) hours of interactive in-person EEO … Continue reading

Posted in EEO/Discrimination, Gender/Sex | Tagged | Leave a comment

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

Posted in FMLA | Tagged | Leave a comment

RETURNING TO A WORKABLE 7116(d) FORUM SELECTION ANALYSIS What if you want to file a grievance and a ULP with FLRA over the same incident? For example, suppose you want to challenge a member’s suspension as a violation of the … Continue reading

Posted in FLRA, Grievance/Arbitration | Tagged | Leave a comment

WHAT IS SURFACE BARGAINING? It is an illegal form of bargaining.  It is used to delay bargaining progress.  It can be very costly to a union. It makes the union look powerless in front of its members. What follows is … Continue reading

Posted in Bargaining Law, Bargaining Tactics | Tagged | Leave a comment

WHY EEO ALLEGATIONS ARE A GOOD GAMBLE TO TAKE Private law firms are taking in bundles of attorney fees representing federal employees in EEO complaints. This  is money unions could be collecting along with the positive publicity of tangibly helping … Continue reading

Posted in EEO/Discrimination | Tagged | 2 Comments

THE FLRA UPDATES ITS NEGOTIABILITY REGS, E-FILING SYSTEM, AND FORMS If you sit on a lot of bargaining teams and especially if you serve as the union’s chief spokesperson, this is important for you.  As the title states, FLRA has … Continue reading

Posted in Negotiability | Tagged | 2 Comments

PAY ATTENTION TO DUBESTER’S BAT  SIGNAL Ernest Dubester led a one-man unprecedented campaign to stop what was probably the most unethical reign of anti-union revenge the FLRA ever witnessed. But he was only one vote against those of two others … Continue reading

Posted in FLRA | Tagged | Leave a comment

WHAT IS A GRIEVANCE RECOVERY PERIOD? The FLRA has said that it “specifically distinguished between contractual back pay recovery periods and contractual time periods for filing grievances.” Consequently, we practitioners had better know the difference, particularly when we sit down to write a … Continue reading

Posted in Arbitration, Grievance/Arbitration | Tagged | Leave a comment

FEDS SCRAMBLE TO SAVE THEIR STALKER’S DREAMS About two weeks ago we posted about how the Governor of Florida is threatening to “slit the throat” of federal employees if he is elected president. Yet, as I write this, thousands of … Continue reading

Posted in Fedsmill | Tagged | Leave a comment