Posted on March 22, 2015 by AdminUN

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT BLOG

The Feds have adopted the employee engagement concept.  Some do a good job; others are just terrible at it.  Many locals around the country have appointed someone below the level of the president to take the lead on engagement activities with management. So, we thought we would pass along a very good blog site that those interested in engagement might want to track.  It is published by the law firm Ogletree Deakins.  Pass it along to those union activists involved in that work.

Posted in Employee Engagement | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on March 16, 2015 by AdminUN

FIVE UNION RIGHTS YOU MAY NOT REMEMBER

We all know that union activists cannot be fired, denied a benefit, or even poorly evaluated if the decision is based on or even related to our choice to be union activist.  But over the years FLRA has certified that union leaders have a few others rights that you might have forgotten about.  So, FEDSMILL.com thought you a reminder of them would help along with excerpts from the precedential FLRA case. Continue reading →

Posted in Union Rights | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on March 16, 2015 by AdminUN

WHAT DO YOU THINK? LEGAL OR ILLEGAL?

Can a union constitution prohibit members from holding more than one elected office at a time even if at different levels of the organization, e.g., local president and regional vice president on the national executive board?  Many, many union leaders have held multiple offices simultaneously.  One of the more famous was Albert Shanker who was simultaneously president of the nationwide American Federation of Teachers, president of its New York City local affiliate–the United Federation, and Vice President of the NY State United Teachers.  He was a gifted and talented leader who virtually created teacher collective bargaining in this country by having influence at so many levels.  Given the wisdom of any organization getting the most out of its best leaders, this is an issue many wrestle with.  Unfortunately, …  Continue reading →

Posted in Union Administration | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on March 13, 2015 by AdminUN

DEPT. OF LABOR & IRS REPORT PROBLEMS?

Given the political climate, unions need to avoid any suggestion of internal problems, especially federal employee unions which are regulated by these two agencies.  So, imagine the fallout if AFGE had any significant degree of failure to timely file LM reports or NTEU locals did not file their 990s to preserve their tax exempt status.  Indeed, any union that fails to comply is risking some serious adverse public scrutiny by some politicians just looking for a reason to do away with them.  Consequently, nationals unions should monitor and enforce these obligations closely and union constitutions could help them.  For example, NATCA’s constitution provides the following: “The National Executive Board may withhold dues rebates for any Local failing to demonstrate remedy for any violation of Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service or NATCA financial provisions within 90 days of receiving the report identifying violation(s).” Frankly, we wonder why a union’s national leadership would wait 90 days, or require board action rather than obligate the national president to take action within 15 days of notification.

Posted in Union Administration | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on March 11, 2015 by AdminUN

ATTENTION FMLA ENTHUSIASTS AND ENFORCERS

If you are the person in the local who handles all the FMLA cases or you are negotiating a contract that will address FMLA matters, then you need to open the gift the American Bar Association just delivered. Each year it publishes an overview of the major court decisions that have addressed FMLA questions over the last twelve months—and the newest edition just came out.  Those of you with FMLA responsibilities should at least page through it to see what issues are still bouncing around in the courts and what are the newest precedent cutting decisions that might help your members.  Although private sector FMLA statutory provisions are notidentical to those for federal employees, they can be very helpful at times.

Posted in FMLA | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on March 10, 2015 by AdminUN

 

NEGOTIABILITY: FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS

A new FLRA negotiability decision (NTEU, 68 FLRA 334 (2015)  makes it a little bit easier for unions to enforce merit-based promotion decisions—if they can convince management to include the concepts in their collective bargaining agreement. Continue reading →

Posted in Bargaining Negotiability | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on March 10, 2015 by AdminUN

WHAT UNION REPS CAN DO THAT EMPLOYEES CAN’T

All employees do not have equal legal rights.  Union representatives have far more rights than most.  In fact, they have far more rights than the average manager. So, if you hear anyone asking the question, “What Can the Union Do for Me?” here is just a short list of the powers a union rep can put to work for employees the minute a union is certified in an election. Continue reading →

Posted in Membership Building | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on March 9, 2015 by AdminUN

NTEU PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN BEGINS

The Washington Post carried a nice piece March 9th about the retiring NTEU National President, but the bigger news may be what it did not address, namely, the campaign to replace her.  The first announced candidates appear to be Tony Reardon and Jim Bailey for President and Executive Vice President, respectively. Both have been NTEU staffers almost from the day they graduated from school.  Tony spent most of his time with NTEU running the business side of the $40 million dollar a year operation, namely, accounting, real estate, investments, technology, etc.  However, over a year ago he was elected National Executive Vice President which put him into significant representational work.  For example, he chaired the recently completed NTEU-IRS contract.  Jim is an attorney who came up through the ranks of the field staff. Most recently he has been in charge of how local chapters got serviced, e.g., arbitration of selected grievances, local bargaining  assistance, membership building, field staff assignments, etc..  The election is early this August and we will report if any other candidates arise from the membership to create a race. This election is not just a big deal for NTEU, but the entire federal sector given the pivotal position NTEU holds to drive change in many unions.

Posted in Union Administration | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on March 6, 2015 by AdminUN

DEPRESSION AS A MITIGATION FACTOR

A recent MSPB decision further validated that an employee’s depression is a legitimate mitigation factor in personal actions, even if it does not become known until after the action was taken. Continue reading →

Posted in Grievance/Arbitration | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Posted on March 6, 2015 by AdminUN

EEOC SPEAKS TO BACK PAY TAX LIABILITIES

Here is a very interesting case from EEOC in which it ordered a federal agency not only to reimburse an employee for any extra tax liability flowing from a large back pay check, but it required the agency to promote the employee twice.  Check out the short summary of the case written in EEOC’s own words. Continue reading →

Posted in Remedies | Tagged | Leave a comment