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.

GRIEVING THE DENIAL OF A DEBT COLLECTION WAIVER To our surprise, both FLRA members decided to interpret the law differently from Chairman Dubester.  The case raised the question of whether an agency’s denial of an employee’s request to repay an … Continue reading

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IS ICE JUST THE BEGINNING OF A SOLELY DHS FOCUSED UNION? FLRA has approved AFGE’s request that it no longer be considered the exclusive representative of Immigration & Citizenship Enforcement (ICE) employees. From all we have heard and read, the … Continue reading

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DON’T MAKE THIS HGDG GRIEVANCE MISTAKE One of the more satisfying grievances to win for employees is a claim that they be paid for doing work above their normal salary grade.  Often these are called Higher Graded Duty Grievances (HGDG), … Continue reading

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FLRA FORCES UNIONS TO WEAPONIZE RATIFICATION VOTES If an agency does not like a FSIP decision, all it needs do is have the agency head disapprove the agreement. That gives the agency an official platform on which to challenge the … Continue reading

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UNION REP TEST #20 – (Reprisal or Hostile Environment) Read through the following facts to identify whether it is a case of reprisal for EEO activity or a hostile EEO environment. The distinction is a big deal when representing an … Continue reading

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CREATIVE GRIEVANCE REMEDIES One of the criticisms that can be leveled against most unions is that they often file grievances that fail to pursue all the potential remedies an employee is due.  To put it more bluntly, they are letting … Continue reading

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HOW TO STOP RAMPANT SELECTING OFFICIAL INCOMPETENCE Thanks to the managements’ rights provision of the labor law, federal selecting officials think they have something akin to Papal infallibility when they decide who should be selected for promotion. Afterall, the law … Continue reading

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AFGE SEVERS ONE OF ITS COUNCILS AFGE just made a very hard decision. It notified FLRA that it no longer wished to represent the 7,500 employees of the Immigration & Citizenship Enforcement (ICE) service. That means a big loss of revenue for … Continue reading

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HOPING FOR THE BEST FOR OUR LAW ENFORCEMENT COLLEAGUES The last ten days have seen someone ignite a firestorm of criticism against federal law enforcement personnel merely for doing the job they were appointed to and bound by law to … Continue reading

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HERE COME THE REMOTE WORK GRIEVANCES Agencies are quickly moving to limit remote work now that the worst COVID pandemic appears to be behind us and we thought we would pass along what may be the best thought out union … Continue reading

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