What do you do if an employee’s doctor says she can only return to work if given light duty, the agency refuses to provide any, and as a result the employee takes large amounts of annual, sick and LWOP to lessen the impact of the job on his physical condition? The first thing you should do is read a new MSPB decision entitled, Kevin Cortez Bean v. U.S. Postal Service, 2013 MSPB 96. Continue reading
While science’s two-decade long, multi-billion dollar search for the Higgs-Boson particle ended in success (and according to some putting man virtually face-to-face with god), the quest for particularized need has proven more challenging than that for labor-management practitioners.. FLRA has had to issue over 80 decisions in its attempt to explain what it is and the courts have had to weigh in nearly a dozen times. So, we thought we would try to help. Continue reading
When unions file ULP charges with the FLRA Office of the General Counsel, that office tries to settle a case before it takes the case to an Administrative Law Judge. When the GC gets a good settlement, it posts a short summary of the deal for everyone to see on a page called, “OGC Settlement Corner.” Because it is buried deep in the www.FLRA.gov site, we thought we would bring it to your attention. We have also copied verbatim what is on the page today to give you a sense of how valuable this can be to persuading your own agency to settle ULP infractions. Continue reading
While the Board’s core job is to make a decision based on the individual case facts before it, it is also expected to look a reasonable distance into the future when creating the precedents that will decide similar cases in the weeks, months and years ahead. However, its recent decision on employee furlough appeal rights suggests that its ability to see beyond the documents in front is on par with that of the legendary Mr. Magoo. Continue reading
Is it possible to prove illegal EEO retaliation when the promotion selecting official had no knowledge that the an applicant she passed over ever had filed an EEO charge? Yes, it is possible if you use the “cat’s paw” approach. Continue reading
Unions can grieve to enforce any of the law’s Prohibited Personnel Practice. We can include them in a grievance along with allegations that the contract was violated as well as that there was a ULP. Or we can file a grievance alleging a contract violation, a ULP with the FLRA General Counsel, and a Prohibited Personnel Practice allegation with the Office of Special Counsel if each has been violated in an employee’s situation. The choice is ours. But before we can do any of that, union reps and employees need to know that they have these rights and what a violation would looks like. So, we have included examples of each of the prohibited practices that you might want to share with them. These are taken verbatim from the Office of Special Counsel web-site with the exception of Comment we included about probationary employee rights. Continue reading
Bargaining unit employees returning from active military service have rights that unions can enforce through their grievance-arbitration procedures. Among the most important are that they must receive promotions and job offers that they would have received but for the fact they were away on military service. The Office of Special Counsel, which also enforces the law, recently announced four successful cases. We thought you would like to read a short summary of each to get more familiar with the Act and what you can do for employees. Continue reading
One reason managers fail to settle grievances early is that they are unaware of the risks. Although it would help everyone if agency leaders made them aware of the risk, unions carry some of the blame for this gap in management’s development. We should be publicizing widely any disputes that went all the way through litigation and produced a big win for the employee, but that could have been settled much earlier if the local managers worked at it. For example, a court decision just came out giving the employee $550 for having suffered sexual harassment from his female supervisor, but awarded Continue reading
Many law enforcement agencies demand that their officer/agents be clear-shaven at all times because they believe, without a scintilla of evidence, that makes them more effective. But a large number of officers/agents believe that intrudes unnecessarily on their personal lives. After all, it is not like a man can end his shift at 5 p.m. and grow a beard before going out that night. NTEU stood up for Customs and Border Protection Officers of Homeland Security and won the right via an FSIP decision for their CBPO members to wear “neat, trimmed and properly groomed” facial hair between ½” to 1” in length. (See NTEU 2012 FSIP 010 (2011)) But the last few weeks have brought more good news for those opposed to an employer’s facial hair ban, including cops. Continue reading
Way back in the late 70’s agencies could only fire poor performing employees using the adverse actions statutes. Managers complained that made it too hard because they had to prove their allegations by the preponderance of evidence as well as prove that the employee’s alleged failings were serious enough to merit termination. President Carter changed all that by creating a way for agencies to fire these employees with merely substantial evidence, and no chance to challenge the seriousness of the mistake or the penalty imposed. However, in return for that he signed a statue that stated that agencies would let employees know in advance what the performance standards would be and that they would “to the maximum extent feasible, permit the accurate evaluation of job performance on the basis of objective criteria.” (5 USC 4301) When that deal was struck, the law was signed and then the roof fell in on federal employees. Continue reading