Category Archives: ULPs

ETHICS TEST: DID THIS UNION SELL OUT ITS MEMBERS? (ANSWER)  Last week we posed a hypothetical fact pattern involving a union’s decision to trade five grievance/ULP charges, that potentially could have given unit employees millions in back pay, in return … Continue reading

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WHAT DID THIS UNION DO WRONG? Here are the facts.  See if you can figure out two things the union did wrong.  The agency had a practice of placing a guard at each of its strategically important locations around its property every … Continue reading

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CBP/DHS, LIKE A FISH, IS ROTTING FROM THE HEAD FIRST Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Service employees are among the country’s most vital feds. It is their job to stop terrorists and crooks from getting in while keeping out illegal … Continue reading

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“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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TEST YOURSELF- The Missing Grievance Allegation? Let’s suppose that an irate member contacted her union rep on a Friday complaining that a month ago her manager had approved her taking one week of annual leave next week, but suddenly the leave that … Continue reading

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23 SOCIAL MEDIA RULES NLRB BELIEVES ARE ILLEGAL The NLRB, which regulates private sector labor relations, has launched a full-scale assault on social media usage rules management has imposed on its employees.  The Board is fighting any effort by employers … Continue reading

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IMPORTANT OT BACK PAY PRECEDENT FLRA just added some clarity to the issue of when are employees entitled to back pay.  In NTEU, 66 FLRA 1024 the employee had been denied the right to work overtime because there was a … Continue reading

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WHEN PAST PRACTICE TRUMPS CONTRACT LANGUAGE What do you do if management suddenly announces that despite following a certain past practice for years, which obviously conflicted with the contract language, it is now pronouncing the past practice dead and insisting … Continue reading

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NEGOTIATORS BEWARE OF MOUs A new FLRA decision (AFGE, 64 FLRA 1113)leaves all us practitioners just a little more confused about the process for terminating not just a mid-term MOU agreement, but also the practices it established. AFGE lost the … Continue reading

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EEO INVESTIGATIONS ARE FORMAL DISCUSSIONS Unions reps have a right to be invited to an EEO investigator’s interview of unit employees. FLRA considers these interviews, even if done one person at a time, to be formal discussions solong as the … Continue reading

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