Whether it is the union or management refusing to participate and whether it is a grievance arbitration or an interest arbitration, the answer is the same. It is a very big mistake and you will likely regret it—a lot. The Authority has repeatedly ruled that if a party refuses to participate in an arbitration hearing that was properly scheduled, it commits an unfair labor practice. Of more immediate significance is … Continue reading
FLRA’s newest decision announced that in the future it will typically adopt a union request that an agency guilty of a ULP be required to send all involved employees an e-mail announcing its guilt and promising to not violate the law again. In the past, the Authority would only order that in extraordinary or non-traditional cases, e.g., repeated serious violations by an agency. However, in AFGE 67 FLRA 221 it changed its mind largely because wall-mounted bulletin boards, the traditional location of FLRA paper-postings, have “… gone the way of the telephone-message pad and the interoffice envelope .” The Authority ended its decision by emphasizing three points. Continue reading
Newly-minted Member Pizzella has launched his FLRA career by largely lecturing the labor-management community on his loyalty to the fight against government waste. His latest sermonette (delivered as a concurring opinion in AFGE, 67 FLRA 218) condemns an AFGE local for wasting government resources by filing exceptions to an arbitration decision it lost. He specifically wrote that based on his personal opinion that the odds were greatly against the union winning before FLRA, “It is unlikely that Congress envisioned that such futile endeavors would ‘contribute to the effective conduct of [the government’s] business’ or facilitate the ‘amicable settlement of disputes.’” Continue reading
Then you will have to build a strong case because the courts and most employers are far from sold on the idea. Employees and unions are in the process of breaking new ground to get this idea widely accepted and there are three documents that can help them build a case for a disabled employee. Continue reading
No, they are not. So, if an employee traveling to work fell and broke both legs, forcing him into bed for six weeks and limiting his walking for seven more months was fired due to being unavailable to work before 2008, the ADA did nothing for him. But, the ADA was replaced with the Americans With Disabilities Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA), and under the new statute the employee is protected. Continue reading
We will leave that to those who argue about how many angels can fit on the head of a pin. As union reps, it is important to know that the Board has apparently held that it violates USERRA for a selecting official to hold one’s military record against him. The case began when a selecting official passed over a current federal employee applicant, who had been an enlisted sailor, in favor of a non-veteran, for a Dept. of Navy civilian job. The employee alleged selecting official had said he could not conceive of “…a mere Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy” capable filling the vacant position. Stated differently, the employee did not allege he was discriminated against because of his service in the military, but because of his rank in the service. Continue reading
Outlined below is a draft of an e-mail message, flyer, posting, etc. that any union could use to remind the average unit employees how much more power union representatives have than employees, private attorneys, or even many managers. Feel free to copy, improve on it, and use it in your own local to boost the union’s image and attract new members. You can send it with the contract information for all the reps or have them individually send a version to the employees they represent. Continue reading
What can an employee do when she is demoted because management says it improperly promoted her in violation of regulations? As if that is not bad enough, what can she do if aside from the demotion the agency also demands that she repay all the money she received because of the improper promotion? The MSPB has made is quite clear that it will only rarely review an agency action to correct a pay mistake. However, in this case the employee met the narrow Board criteria for reversing a pay error, where the employee did nothing wrong to cause the pay error. Continue reading
There are a variety of reasons why a union might want to block FSIP from taking jurisdiction over its bargaining dispute. One way is to piggyback on Interpretation and Guidance, 11 FLRA 626 (1983) wherein the Authority announced that FSIP does not have the power to take jurisdiction over an issue impacted by a pending ULP charge. For example, suppose a union submitted a broad information demand that touched on ten articles involved in a 30-article term agreement dispute. (Or an information demand that impacted ten core proposals in a 30 proposal midterm negotiations) If the agency refused to comply and the union filed a ULP alleging an improper denial of information, typically a 7116(a)(1) and (5) violation, the union would have grounds to argue that the Panel cannot take jurisdiction over at least the ten articles impacted by the information denial. The FLRA decision explained the reason for that as follows: Continue reading