Recognizing a prohibited personnel practice violation is one of the more powerful things a union rep can do because the law permits the offending manager to be suspended, fined and even barred from government service. Not long ago we ran across a pretty good review of the PPPs in a PowerPoint prepared by the IG of the Small Business Administration. We particularly like the practical exercises and recommend you consider borrowing it to train stewards.
In the chaotic aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. Customs Service made a lot of questionable decisions trying to boost America’s protection. That should have been a surprise to no one, was understandable and we are glad it put citizen safety first. But as the months wore on after the attack, the employee’s union, NTEU, pointed out that the agency had violated employee rights by scheduling tours of duty without giving employees two consecutive days off each week and/or assigning them to a constant shift starting time in a single week. The agency rejected the union’s advice, forced it to file a grievance which NTEU won, and now FLRA has blessed the arbitrator’s decision, making everything final absent some bizarre agency maneuver. The decision grants thousands of harmed employees around 15 years of back pay for every week (around 780 of them) their statutory entitlements were illegally denied them. As best we can tell from afar, this should be well over the $100,000,000.00 mark, putting it in the same territory as NTEU’s $500,000,000 back pay victory in the 70’s and its almost $300,000,000 “special rates” award. Super Congrats to NTEU for weaving its way through the obstacle-strewn path Homeland Security forced it to travel to protect employees. Continue reading
Arbitrator Suzanne R. Butler found that the Agency violated the parties’ collective-bargaining agreement by not retroactively paying qualified bargaining-unit employees’ mass-transit subsidies of up to $240 per month for the period from January 2012 through December 2012, and up to $245 for the month of January 2013. As a remedy, she directed the Agency to reimburse affected employees for the amounts that they would have received absent the contractual violation. The Agency tried to convince FLRA to overturn the award and save it a few million. However, the Authority held that the Federal Employees Clean Air Incentives Act (the Incentives Act) and the Back Pay Act (the BPA) support the award. Consequently, it is time for HHS to pull out the check book. This NTEU case is only the tip of the back pay iceberg for NTEU whose contracts often contained clauses requiring agencies to pay the maximum subsidy. Check out NTEU, 68 FLRA 239 (2015)
Let’s assume that the federal government creates a new agency with tens of thousands of employees throughout the country and that agency quickly earns a reputation as a terrible employer. Obviously, unions would be deeply interested in organizing them. However, due to Congressional pressure, some ambiguous statutory language, and an agency leadership eager to avoid being unionized, unions realize that it is going to take years, if ever, 1- to make contact with the employees, 2- prove the union’s value to them, and 3- get them to sign on as even associate members paying only nominal dues until a union is formally organized. Can you think of a faster way than traditional slow, labor-intensive organizing to get employee names and contact information, demonstrate the union’s value, identify some employee leaders, and even sign up some new members? Continue reading
Here is a provision from the current Constitution of a federal employee union we hold in high regard: “A National and Regional officer who retires from the Federal government before their term of office expires may complete that term at the pleasure of the National Council. National and Regional officers who resign from the Federal government before their term expires shall relinquish such office, effective with their resignation.” For purposes of this post we are going to side with the National Weather Service Employees Organizations (NWSEO) and argue that retirees should not be permitted to serve on either a national or regional executive board. Continue reading
It looks like management can ask you to perform certain tasks while on FMLA leave. We are not experts in this area, but we just saw a very good article pulling together case law from several courts. Check out “Employer Requires Employee to Work During FMLA Leave. Ummmm, Is This a Problem?” As a union leader, you might want to do a few things about this. First, let employees know that if contacted while on FMLA leave to do some work, they should let the union rep know. Second, Continue reading
In a recent case, DHS tried to fire an employee for misrepresentation, which MSPB considers to be the same as falsifying, lying or defrauding. The employee, on detail to a different position and not trained in security procedures, thought he had been authorized to escort a visitor into secure areas through whichever door he chose. He did not have that authority, but the Board found that “the record is devoid of any evidence that the appellant intended to defraud, deceive, or mislead the agency for his own private material gain.” Consequently, it overturned the removal. See Rommel Boo v DHS, TSA, 2014 MSPB 86 (2014). There are two reasons why this is an important decision. Continue reading
The employee in this not-so-hypothetical story has been with TSA for just over a year working as a Financial Specialist. Prior to that, he had 22 years in the military. On the day in question he was detailed to the position of Administrative Officer and authorized to escort a GSA representative from the “unsanitized” to the “sanitized” areas of the John Wayne Airport in California. (A sanitized area is behind the check point where everyone is screened for weapons.) The GSA rep was there to exam a mold problem. Continue reading
NTEU has a very big year ahead of it. It could be about to elect a new national president, its largest unit (IRS) will continue to get pummeled by Congressman Issa and others as part of the 2016 campaign, its membership decreased for the first time in years, and its largest contracts could see big negative changes. So, we thought we would let you know what to watch for as this highly regarded union works its way through each of those events and a few more.
ELECTIONS– Unlike AFGE, NATCA and a few other unions, NTEU has only two full-time, paid, elected national officers and both of those seats are subject to a vote this summer. The last two national presidents before the current one, Colleen Kelley, only stayed in the job for 16 years (four terms) before leaving voluntarily. This will be Kelley’s 16th year, which at least boosts the possibility that she also chooses to retire rather than take on another four years. If she does move on, another NTEU tradition is that the current National Executive Vice President moves into the presidential seat. NTEU has an heir apparent sitting in its VP slot who is much younger than Kelley, and highly experienced in national union management matters thanks to about 20 years as a national office staffer.
But, if he moves up, who moves in to replace him becomes a very intriguing question. Does NTEU fill that slot with another staffer rather than federal employee currently serving as a local union officer? If it does not put a current staffer forward for the job, what will its chapters do? The union has three large voting blocks, namely, its Customs and Border Protection locals who have the highest percentage of membership, its IRS data center locals, and all the rest of the IRS locals. The last three national presidents have come from the last of those three groups. Consequently, it would not surprise us this election if the other two groups insist that it is time one of the national officers came from its ranks. That could make for a very messy election convention—something NTEU is not used to.
MEMBERSHIP– Five of the six unions representing purely federal employees reported to the Department of Labor in 2014 that they increased membership last year, i.e., AFGE, NATCA, NWSEO, NFFE, and POPA. In contrast, NTEU membership decreased by over 2,000. That is something to worry about. We are not qualified to fully diagnose why, but we can see from a comparison of DOL LM reports to OPM Official Time Reports that NTEU has a number of what we like to call “Zombie” locals, i.e., units whose percent of membership has remained miserably low, e.g. below 25%, for a long time. (See “What To Do About Zombie Locals.”) That not only forces other locals to pay their share of the national union expenses, but it leaves untapped the most readily available group of potential new members—those employees the union already represents. Stepping up to that problem in an effective way would help soften the downsizing of its IRS unit.
BIG CONTRACTS– NTEU can justly claim to have some of the most thorough and imaginative agreements in the federal sector. Those benefits undoubtedly help keep the voting officials of its more than 200 locals happy enough with the national leadership to give those two leaders great latitude to run the union. Currently, NTEU’s contracts for the IRS and CBP units are open, and they cover the vast majority of its locals and electorate. Disappointing contracts could lead the electorate to pursue a little more involvement in the day-to-day affairs of the national leadership, whether that be its spending habits, its membership building efforts, its external organizing decisions, its planning process, its goal-setting, etc.
POLITICS– Congressman Issa has clearly made it his business to bash IRS at every opportunity. Not only has that helped his party generate campaign support, but it has also hurt the public’s impression of the IRS, made it a less attractive place to work, and provided a political foundation for cutting its staffing. Numerous media articles provide detailed hard data about how badly understaffed IRS is and how likely it is to fail this year, setting it up for another round of Congressional bashing. When the White House fails to defend an attacked agency, the only organization left to stand up for it is the employees’ union. Whatever NTEU did the last two years, it must find a way to be more effective. Otherwise, the only reason Congress may reject the building call to totally abolish IRS is that Issa would not want to give up a favorite punching bag. Keep an eye on what NTEU does to shield IRS from the grossly unfair political attacks, such as Issa proclaiming that the entire IRS culture is biased. That was a neat little bit of scapegoating that another political leader used with devastating effectiveness in 1930’s and 1940’s Germany. Yet, we have not seen a single media article pointing out that underhanded trick. That is even more reason why NTEU will have to lead this fight.
OVERVIEW– This could be a transformational year for the federal sector’s second largest union and that could have an impact far beyond NTEU’s borders. Does it start organizing in agencies it has not entered before? Does it find a way to preserve the in-house peace that enabled it to avoid a disruptive internal split? Does it reverse the building IRS funding crisis? Does it modify its national strategic plan? Does it involve local leaders more in setting the direction of the union, perhaps even as partners? Stay tuned. We are.