Posted on July 30, 2013 by AdminUN

PITY POOR ALJ SHAPIRO

The Social Security Administration fired one of its administrative law judges, Mark Shapiro, for failing to produce at least 500 decisions a year.  (The preferred target is 700.)  That is two a day if he only takes two weeks of leave in a year. In contrast, it is a good year when an ALJ at the FLRA issues five decisions.  How could Judge Shapiro be fired from one ALJ spot when he produced decisions at a rate that would have earned him a Croix du Guere with endless clusters at FLRA? Continue reading →

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Posted on July 30, 2013 by AdminUN

HOW TO LOSE MILLIONS FOR MEMBERS

Recently, an agency served notice on each of the two unions that represent its employees that it plans to cut the funding of its awards program nearly in half. It currently distributes annually an amount of about 1% of the total annual salaries of all unit employees in awards to them. One union responded by invoking negotiations, and the other did not respond allowing management to immediately implement the funding cuts for their members.  Which union made the better decision? Continue reading →

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Posted on July 30, 2013 by AdminUN

NTEU BREAKS OVERTIME RESTRAINTS ON FORMER AFGE MEMBERS

Decades ago the Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) issued a proclamation stating that he was taking away the right of INS employees to two consecutive days off a workweek and to work the same starting/quitting times for an entire week.  He declared that it would harm the agency to give INS employees the same rights that all other federal employees had thanks to the law at 5 USC 6101. As a result, INS management was able deny agency employees overtime pay for many of the hours they were assigned to work.  This cost employees millions.  Then, . . . Continue reading →

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Posted on July 21, 2013 by AdminUN

CAN THIS EMPLOYEE’S JOB BE SAVED?

Here are the facts.  Marisa, a unit employee, came to you a few minutes ago with a copy of an adverse action letter proposing to fire her for a chronic leave problem.  According to the letter, she had taken 11 weeks of leave over the last year, generally for a series of medical issues.  She had enough annual and sick leave to cover eight of those weeks and her supervisor gave her a week of leave without pay after she ran out of annual and sick.  But, the remaining two weeks were charged to AWOL. Marisa also gave you copies of four documents she sent her manager from medical professionals in which each said she needed to take time off to deal with her illness. These accounted for all but a week of her absences.  When you asked if any of her leave was covered by FMLA, she said she never asked for it and the manager never brought it up. Continue reading →

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Posted on July 21, 2013 by AdminUN

BARGAINING WITH JERKS #3- (Tactics)

Table Jerks are all about game-playing at the edge of unethical/illegal bargaining behavior.   They spend most of their time refusing to provide information, proclaiming there is no demonstrated need for the union proposal, and shouting “Non-negotiable.”  But, those are not the only areas of law they try to exploit.  Here are two others and some suggestions on how to deal with them. (This is the third in a series about how to deal with the few management reps who come to the bargaining table to play games rather than integrate and benefit from union/employee input. Just put the term “Jerk” in our search box and the first two will pop up.) Continue reading →

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Posted on July 17, 2013 by AdminUN

WHAT DID THIS UNION DO WRONG?

Here are the facts.  See if you can figure out two things the union did wrong.  The agency had a practice of placing a guard at each of its strategically important locations around its property every shift.  When it suddenly changed that by requiring one staff person to cover two strategic locations per shift rather than one, the union charged management with violating the contract.  The clause at issue read as follows: “The Employer agrees to lower inherent hazards to employees to the lowest level possible without relinquishing its management rights.  A ‘strategic location’ is defined as a self-contained area and can only be safely secured by a single officer.”  The union grievance asked for a return to the prior staffing level and that is what the arbitrator ordered. However, FLRA overturned the award saying that it intruded too heavily on management’s right to assign work.  Have you identified the two errors yet? Continue reading →

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Posted on July 17, 2013 by AdminUN

FMLA, DOMA AND SAME SEX SPOUSES

Now that the Supreme Court overturned the Defense of Marriage Act there seems to be a lot of chatter about what that means for same sex spouses seeking FMLA benefits. As of today, if a federal employee asks this question, “May I take FMLA to care for the medical needs of my same-sex domestic partner?” OPM will respond with the following: “Because the individuals for whom an employee can provide care under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) are specified in statute, an employee may take FMLA leave only to care for spouses, sons and daughters under 18 or over 18 but incapable of self-care because of a mental or physical disability, and parents. The DOMA definition of spouse precludes the extension of FMLA leave benefits to opposite-sex partners.”  But, . . . Continue reading →

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Posted on July 17, 2013 by AdminUN

OBESITY AS A DISABILITY

Back on March 24, 2012 we posted an article entitled, “When Severe Obesity Is a Disability.”  It explained how EEOC now recognizes obesity as a disability qualifying employees for reasonable accommodations.  Well, now the American Medical Association has said the same thing. Check out the posting on the web site of the law firm Shaw and Valenza.

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Posted on July 11, 2013 by AdminUN

LABOR’S VERY BIG BLUNDER (The AFL-ABA-CIO)

Organized labor has been shrinking in numbers and influence for over 60 years. There are a lot of reasons: well-funded enemies, relentless lawlessness by many employers, a toothless labor law, foreign competition for jobs, automation, some public image disasters, poor business practices, etc. But at least as harmful as any of them was labor’s own decision to give away it most valuable asset, namely its right to exclusively represent employees in all employment-related matters, not just contract matters. Continue reading →

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Posted on July 11, 2013 by AdminUN

BARGAINING WITH JERKS- #2 (Negotiability)

What do you do with the Jerk on the other side of the table who needlessly declares union proposals non-negotiable just to screw-up bargaining and prevent problem-solving?  Well, we can think of eight things, and described them below. (This is the second in a series of postings.  The first was entitled, “Bargaining With Jerks #1 (information Access)”. This series is dedicated to those on the agency side of the table who come to obstruct rather than construct, whose only bargaining skill is to game-play, and who cost agencies millions each year.) Continue reading →

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