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.

TRUMP PICKS ON THE DISABLED;  HIS BASE PURGES THEM Few will forget how our Leader mocked a reporter during the campaign for being disabled.  For those who thought that suggested a man with a low opinion of the disabled, here … Continue reading

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CAN FSIP DENY A UNION THE RIGHT TO BARGAIN OVER UNSPECIFIED FUTURE CHANGES? Not long ago Trump’s Panel ruled that an agency was free to determine the amount of the annual wage increase in each year of the new, multi-year … Continue reading

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THANKS AGAIN AFGE AFGE’s General Counsel shop has shown, once again, how aggressively it is going to protect federal employees.  When the Office of the Special Counsel put out Hatch Act advice warning feds not to show any support for “resisting” … Continue reading

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WHY DON’T UNIONS ALLY WITH VETERAN GROUPS? Unions need all the help they can get these days and one need only look at the President to see how powerless someone can be without allies. So, why aren’t unions leaders knocking … Continue reading

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THE RIGHT TO SERVICE ANIMALS IN THE WORKPLACE A well-respected law firm just sent a legal memo out to its clients giving them a good overview of the right of disabled employees to bring service animals to the office or … Continue reading

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BEING NICE IN NEGOTIATIONS CAN BACKFIRE The FEDSMILL board member with decades as a union chief negotiator has often explained to the rest of us why the chief spokesperson often needs to “not be nice” to the other side.  In … Continue reading

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PARENT ATTENDANCE AT SCHOOL IEP COVERED BY FMLA While OPM is not bound to follow what the Department of Labor says about how to administer the FMLA, it almost always does.  So, now that DOL has said private sector employees … Continue reading

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THE FUTURE OF OFFICIAL TIME UNDER TRUMP The Administration and its finger puppets at FSIP are making it nearly impossible for unions to continue agreeing to bank time systems to represent employees.  Ironically, they are also requiring agency executives to … Continue reading

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IMPOSING EXTRA REQUIREMENTS TO APPROVE FMLA LEAVE LIKELY ILLEGAL A federal judge just shined a spotlight on a problem employees can encounter when they ask for FMLA leave as opposed to other kinds of leave.  The judge said the agency … Continue reading

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IS BANK TIME ONLY PERMISSIVELY NEGOTIABLE WITH UNIONS? Union and agency negotiators started creating banks of time for union reps to use because it made a lot of sense for both sides.  Management, for example, no longer had to make … Continue reading

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