Posted on August 3, 2015 by AdminUN

NTEU CONVENTION BEGINS THIS WEEK BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

While the NTEU convention does not start officially until August 9, its Resolutions Committee meets this week behind doors closed to delegates and members.  Under its Constitution, the NTEU National President appoints a little more than a half-dozen local leaders to the Convention Resolution Committee to prepare a recommendation on each proposed Constitutional amendment for the delegates who will vote on them next week.  Even though the committee could finish its work as early as Wednesday, the delegates will not see the recommendations until the night before the convention begins next Monday, when they must start voting on them. A copy is never posted for members or even those who proposed the amendment. In addition to their closed door summit, the committee members’ identities are not shared with the approximately 250 local union leaders until the convention starts. That ensures that these seven to nine committee members are not lobbied by the NTEU local leaders and members spread across over 30 agencies. Even the people proposing amendments cannot get to them. Although the committee has before it the proposed resolutions and a short rationale from the person proposing the change, only the National President can lobby the Committee to move in a certain direction. Typically, this is done by giving them a draft report with the President’s recommendations on what they should do with each proposed change. The President also places staff in the committee room to monitor their deliberations. This is not shared with delegates at any time.  But not all unions have such tight, centralized control over their conventions. Continue reading →

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Posted on August 2, 2015 by AdminUN

AGENCY HEAD APPROVAL OF LOCAL AGREEMENTS

The 5 USC 7117(c) rules for approving agreements negotiated at the level of exclusive recognition are well- known, e.g., an agency head has thirty days to disapprove a negotiated agreement, the agency must serve the union with notice of the disapproval within thirty days, the date of service rather than the date that the agency head decides to disapprove the agreement is what matters, and if an agency does not timely and properly serve its disapproval of an agreement on the union, then the agreement automatically goes into effect. But what about agreements negotiated below the level of recognition, commonly called local supplemental agreements.  What statutory rules apply to them?  The simple answer is that the parties have a choice. Continue reading →

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Posted on July 30, 2015 by AdminUN

PREGNANT EMPLOYEES’ PATH TO WORKPLACE ACCOMMODATIONS

The Supreme Court issued a decision earlier this year explaining the rights pregnant employees have to accommodations.  We thought the decision was explained very well for practitioners by Jeff Nowak of FMLA Insights. So, rather than try to outdo his very fine analysis and advice we suggest you click over to his post, read through it, and then forward it to all the folks who rely on your advice. We do not advise trying to presume you know who all the pregnant members.

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Posted on July 30, 2015 by AdminUN

LEAVE TO ATTEND RELIGIOUS CONVENTIONS 

EEOC has gone out of its way to explain that feds are entitled to accommodations for a wide variety of religious activities. If you doubt us, check out RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION COVERAGE EXPANDING, CHURCH LADY SMITS DOD, AND CHRISTIANS 1, CBP MANAGEMENT -$28,600. The Commission came out with another last week where an employee asked for leave to attend a religious convention, but never asked for a formal accommodation. Continue reading →

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Posted on July 28, 2015 by AdminUN

POOP IS GINA PROTECTED

(GUEST AUTHOR)- Is it lawful for an employer to collect genetic information from an employee, even if for non-discriminatory reasons?  According to a recent a decision out of the Northern District of Georgia, the answer is no.  Lowe v. Atlas Logistic Groups Retail Services, LLC (May 5, 2015).  Lowe involves a truly bizarre fact pattern – an unknown person was defecating in a factory and the company could not figure out the culprit.  After narrowing the suspect to several employees, the company requested DNA swabs that could compare to the … evidence … left on site.  Two innocent employees who complied with the request filed suit under the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA).  Despite the fact that the company requested the DNA swabs for non-discriminatory reasons, and did not use the swabs to collect information on the employees (only to compare to the evidence), the company was found to have violated the statute and was ordered to pay damages.    Continue reading →

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Posted on July 28, 2015 by AdminUN

DOL TARGETS UNION FINANCIAL ERRORS & CRIMES

Actually, that is an understatement. Since the beginning of the year DOL has announced about 70 indictments, guilty pleas, or convictions from union leaders for embezzlement, fraud, wire fraud, false statements, and whatever other terms are used to criminally pursue those who misuse union funds. Continue reading →

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Posted on July 28, 2015 by AdminUN

THIS LOCAL UNION BEST WEB SITE JUST GOT BETTER

A couple of years ago we declared the local union web site run by NTEU Chapter 293 the best among all we have seen. Well, ignore that post and the good example their web site was. Chapter 293 has come out with an even better site that once again raises the bar for the rest of us. (Yes, we are jealous and dealing with feelings of inadequacy. Imagine what national NTEU is feeling given its aged web site.) Check out Chapter 293’s new, improved, and eye-popping site. Visually attractive, easy to understand with a glance, up to date, and useful to building the union. Back in 2001 this local had 735 members. Today it has over 1,000 more, and we strongly suspect it is because of all the attention it pays to managing the union’s image. Our compliments to the imaginative, forward-looking, leaders at 293 who had to welcome ideas for lots of folks to develop something so fitting.

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Posted on July 28, 2015 by AdminUN

DOL DEMANDS GREATER SECRECY IN CONVENTION VOTES

There is an interesting case working its way through the Colorado federal courts. The Department of Labor has sued a union alleging that the voting process at its convention was not as secret as law requires. If DOL wins this one, unions will have to step up their efforts to enabled delegates to mark ballots in secret. Here is what DOL has posted on its own web site about the case. In fact, if unions have elections in progress now and are ignoring the DOL demands they risk a lot of money rerunning the elections. Continue reading →

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Posted on June 14, 2015 by AdminUN

FAREWELL COLLEEN KELLEY AND THANKS

In a little less than 60 days, Colleen Kelley, National President of NTEU and one of the more visible figures in federal sector labor relations, will retire after 16 years in that job. So, we thought that before she left we would say, “Thanks” and take this opportunity to wander down memory lane looking back on all that has happened in NTEU and around the federal sector since late 1999, the dawn of this century. She deserves credit for so much. Continue reading →

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Posted on June 12, 2015 by AdminUN

WHAT IS AN LGBT SLUR?

OPM deserves credit for publishing, “Addressing Sexual and Gender Identity Discrimination in Federal Civilian Employment: A Guide to Employment Rights, Protections and Responsibilities.”   It is a concise and clear explanation of how those who believe they were victims of either form of gender discrimination can formally seek corrective action.  Indeed, its explanation of the anti-discrimination procedures is likely useful for challenging most forms of discrimination.  But, it ducked a very significant step in stopping illegal behavior against anyone in the LGBT community, educating others about what will be considered a harassing slur or even provide examples of situations which have been found to constitute either form of illegal discrimination. We recognize the sensitivity of a government agency identifying a list of slurs or even a string of factual situations it agrees constitute illegal discrimination. But we wonder why it did not at least refer the readers to private lists of that information, such as provided by Wikipedia (List of LBGT Slang Terms), or case examples provided by private entities.  It did not even speak to the question of whether a single example of a slur being used in the workplace will be considered discrimination under OPM rules. Given that the courts are divided on that issue, it was important for OPM to speak.

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