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.

HOW TO MEASURE MANAGEMENT UNFAIRNESS Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a way to measure how unfair agency policies or practices are, especially if the measure was widely recognized as having evidentiary value? Of course, it would because union … Continue reading

Posted in EEO/Discrimination | Tagged | Leave a comment

ABOUT “SAME RACE” DISCRIMINATION Although it rarely comes up in the media, we thought you might like to read a short piece from the law firm of Fox Rothschild.  It is about what happens when a supervisor uses racial slurs … Continue reading

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ARE UNION REPS JUST TOO THOUGHTLESS TO DO THIS? For the umpteenth time we have yet another case where the union’s own incompetence destroyed their ability to win a grievance.  In this case, the agency changed some employees’ working conditions … Continue reading

Posted in Grievance/Arbitration | Tagged | Leave a comment

SHORT, SWEET, AND UNQUESTIONABLY ILLEGAL When an VA employee asked for a reasonable accommodation, VA management moved the request very efficiently by providing a prompt denial and ending the discussion of the request. Short and sweet, but according to EEOC … Continue reading

Posted in Disability, Reasonable Accommodations | 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 negotiators when we sit down to write … Continue reading

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CHIEF ALJ LIES AND EMPLOYEE DIES  We will never know if the Chief ALJ’s actions hastened this employee’s death, but they sure did not help. A judge in SSA’s Office of Hearing Operations (OHO) in North Charleston, South Carolina had … Continue reading

Posted in EEO/Discrimination, Reasonable Accommodations | Tagged | 1 Comment

EMPLOYEE FORCES AGENCY TO SEND HER TO TRAINING  You read a lot about employees grieving or challenging removals and suspensions as well as leave and promotion denials.  But it is rare to see a case where the employee knew enough … Continue reading

Posted in Gender/Sex, Training | Tagged | Leave a comment

UNION REP TEST #11 (WIGI/ALOC)          Agencies do not often propose to withhold a Within Grade Increase (WIGI), which is also known as an Acceptable Level of Competence determination (ALOC). But because it is so rare, it is easy for … Continue reading

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I WILL BURN DOWN YOUR HOUSE! EEOC long ago ruled that it constitutes illegal reprisals for a manager to tell an employee who has filed an EEO complaint that was the “wrong way to go about getting a promotion.” (Binseel … Continue reading

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OH, HOW THEY LIE FLRA Member Kiko made a point on her bio to mention that in her spare time she works with her church’s women’s group and Member Abbott majored in religion. Yet, these self-promoting theists have no problem … Continue reading

Posted in Bargaining Law | Tagged | Leave a comment