Posted on June 1, 2015 by AdminUN

WHEN PERFORMANCE AWARDS ARE DISCRETIONARY

What’s a union to do when management distributes cash performance awards as it sees fit without any negotiated formal criteria?  A lot, even if the FSIP said the agency could do it that way. The agency still must comply with all relevant the laws and regulations–and there are several a union could use to make the agency regret insisting on total discretion. We have covered some in previous posts concerning disparate impact claims. So, let’s look at other responses by describing what it would look like if managers had complete discretion.  Continue reading →

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Posted on June 1, 2015 by AdminUN

EXECUTIVE BOARD SEAT EQUALITY

Should seats on a union’s national executive board be distributed equally–and by equally we mean based on a relatively equal number of members represented by each board member?  We looked around the fed sector recently and found that many unions do not do that.  In fact, some differences are huge, e.g., in one union a single board member represents only1,600 unit members while two others on the same union board represent over 10,000 each. Another example revealed that the employees of one bargaining unit get two board seats to represent its 19,000 members while the approximately 19,000 members of another unit in the same union got 7 seats on the national executive board. We even found an example of the employees in the same bargaining unit being treated quite differently with one geographic group given a board seat even though it had only one-third the number of unit members as the employees in another geographic area who also were given only one board seats.

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Posted on May 27, 2015 by AdminUN

IS THIS FLSA RETALIATION?

(By Guest Contributor) When a GS-6 employee complained to her supervisor that she was not getting paid for all the overtime she was working, the supervisor stopped giving her any overtime for a month. On her normal schedule, she would have worked 10 hours of overtime in the month. Can she claim she is the victim of FLSA retaliation if she only made an oral mention of her dissatisfaction just to her supervisor, not HR or via a grievance? Continue reading →

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Posted on May 27, 2015 by AdminUN

HOW UNION CONVENTIONS ARE (OR ARE NOT) CONTROLLED

With the summer union convention season just getting underway, it is time to touch on the two-sided issue of convention control.  Every convention needs some control mechanisms if it is going to do any business, but control can also be excessive and get in the way of necessary changes timely responsive to the shifting future rather than the past. It is up to the delegates and members to decide where to draw that line. We are just going to point out some of the more common control mechanisms. Continue reading →

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Posted on May 26, 2015 by AdminUN

NEW EVIDENCE OVERTURNS A COERCED RESIGNATION

Not long ago the MSPB overturned a resignation when the employee brought new evidence up after the hearing before the MSPB judge ruled. The Board accepted the evidence and also explained why it thought this resignation was coerced, which made it an adverse action taken without a hearing and agency decision.  So, MSPB reinstated the employee with back pay.  Here are the highlights of the case largely in the Board’s own words. (O’Brien v. Navy, 2015 MSPB 15 (2015)) Continue reading →

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Posted on May 15, 2015 by AdminUN

EARN MASTER’S IN LABOR STUDIES–WHILE WORKING

Given that thousands of federal employees are union activists as stewards, officers, etc., we thought we would pass on some information to our readers about what seems like a pretty good deal for those interested in boosting their skills, experiences and credentials in running a union.  The University of Massachusetts offers full time employees the opportunity to get a Master’s degree in Labor Studies through its Labor Relations and Research Center (LRRC). While many universities offer Master’s degree in Labor Relations, the UMass program is specifically designed for union leaders. If you are interested, click over to its Limited-Residency Program for Union Leaders web site.

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Posted on May 13, 2015 by AdminUN

WANT TO KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT A POTENTIAL ARBITRATOR—FOR FREE?

Many times a year unions try to find out more about an arbitrator before they pick him/her to serve on a permanent panel or just to do a case.  The AFL-CIO lawyers operate an informal system sizing up how acceptable arbitrators are to unions. If you are willing to pay its subscribers’ fee, Cyberfeds.com keep tracks of the number of times an arbitrator finds for management, finds for the union or splits the case.  It even tracks information about how often their decisions are appealed to FLRA.  But both those sources are far less than perfect, e.g., they do not report on every decision an arbitrator has issued, the quality of the case the union put before him/her, etc.  Here is a source you may not know about. The FLRA reports on every decision where an arbitrator was involved in a federal sector case and one or both parties were so dissatisfied that they filed exceptions with FLRA. Here is how to use it. Continue reading →

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Posted on May 13, 2015 by AdminUN

DO DOD EMPLOYEES NEED NTEU AND/OR DOES NTEU NEED THEM?

If you follow the NTEU National newsletter you have seen that the delegates at its upcoming August convention are going to consider whether or not the National President should retain the power to decide to organize in the Department of Defense (DOD). Veeeeery interesting! So, we want to think out loud about that for a few minutes. Continue reading →

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Posted on May 13, 2015 by AdminUN

WHO IS ROB ARNOLD?

There are three things.  First, he is on NFFE’s National Executive Board as a National Vice President, learning  the ropes of national leadership and dealing with problems outside his own local. Second, he is also President of NFFE Local 1998, representing all Passport Service employees of the State Department throughout the country.  1998 is one of NFFE’s most active locals with a great web site. Just check out how much information he puts on his home page for anyone to read.  But, most important to the rest of us in the federal sector, he is leading an important fight on our behalf.  It appears some outside contractor employees stole some passport data using their cell phones and use it apply for bogus credit cards.  So, now in a classic overreaction management wants to ban all employees from bringing their cell phones to work.   Check out the story in Joe Davidson’s column in the May 13, 2015 Washington Post and keep your fingers crossed that Mr. Arnold can set a good precedent for all of us in his negotiations.

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Posted on May 11, 2015 by AdminUN

ARBITRATION DISPUTES INSIDE UNIONS

How do unions handle dispute when local reps want to take a case to arbitration and the regional or national reps do not?  Well, it turns out there are a variety of ways ranging from the very democratic to the other end of the spectrum. Here are some examples we found around the federal sector. Continue reading →

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