Posted on May 24, 2013 by AdminUN

 WHEN AGENCIES LIE IN SETTLEMENT TALKS

Here are the facts that MSPB recently faced.  Two employees got into a fight at the workplace and were fired. As their MSPB appeal hearings grew closer, the agency made settlement offers and one employee agreed to drop her appeal and leave if the agency changed her removal to a resignation.  She contends that the agency assured her that it was not (and would not) offer the other employee in the fight reinstatement.  But it turned out that it did reinstate the other employee.  Is the settlement valid? Continue reading →

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Posted on May 23, 2013 by AdminUN

CANCER VICTIMS’ RIGHTS IN THE WORKPLACE

EEOC has just updated its Q&A about the rights cancer victims have in the workplace.   Among the more relevant questions are 1-  What other types of reasonable accommodations may employees with cancer need? 2- May an employer request documentation when an employee who has cancer requests a reasonable accommodation? and 3-When may an employer refuse to hire, terminate, or temporarily restrict the duties of a person who has or had cancer because of safety concerns?  It is a must read if you are representing cancer sufferers.  Check out Questions & Answers about Cancer in the Workplace and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

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Posted on May 23, 2013 by AdminUN

OUR FAVORITE APPROPRIATE ARRANGEMENT PROPOSALS (Pt. 2- Postponing Implementation)

When management finally notifies the union of a proposed midterm change it wishes to make pursuant to its 7106 management rights, it usually is very eager to implement it.  Often, it is so eager that it will make concessions just to get the union’s agreement.  Because the union typically has other many reasons for delaying implementation, a skilled union negotiator needs to know the variety of appropriate arrangement proposals FLRA has approved as negotiable that permit it to delay implementation of the change even after agreement is reached.   Here are some of our favorites. Continue reading →

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Posted on May 19, 2013 by AdminUN

WHY VA NURSES SHOULD STUDY WALL STREET

Wall Street moguls might not care about values, ethics, morality, statutes, humanity, the environment, the common good, or world peace, but the U.S. Veteran Affairs nurses could benefit greatly from doing what they do.  Those who run The Street know how to protect themselves personally from risk, profit from information, produce wealth through relationships, accumulate power, shape the future to their advantage, and, except for a sprinkling of indictments here and there, always come out on top.  That is precisely what VA nurses need from their labor unions, but are not getting.  Here is why. Continue reading →

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Posted on May 18, 2013 by AdminUN

OUR FAVORITE APPROPRIATE ARRANGEMENT PROPOSALS (Pt. 1)

Agency managers are free to change anything in an employee’s working conditions they choose (and whenever they choose) so long as they are exercising a 7106 management right.  They can assign an employee new duties overnight, move him to another building  in the commuting area, double the number of factors on which the employee will be evaluated, add five new conduct rules, abolish his formal training programs, and even reassign him from the day shift to the night shift.  The only thing standing in an agency’s way of instantly making an employee’s working conditions intolerable is a union and its right to negotiate “appropriate arrangements” to lessen the adverse impact of the change.  Without a union highly skilled in these negotiations federal employees are the proverbial sitting ducks. Continue reading →

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Posted on May 18, 2013 by AdminUN

NTEU REELS IN $2.61 MILLION FOR FDIC DISCRIMINATION VICTIMS

Long-time FEDSMILL readers might remember our posting entitled, “FDIC Flips, Flops, Flaps, & Flails” in which we described how mightily FDIC management was struggling to get off the hook of a multi-million dollar class action age and race discrimination case NTEU had won in arbitration.  Well, to make a long story short, it stopped struggling recently and paid out $2.61 million to the harmed employees. Continue reading →

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Posted on May 18, 2013 by AdminUN

MSPB EXPANDS ACCUSED EMPLOYEE’S RIGHT TO INFORMATION

A Homeland Security Agent was fired for falsifying an official form.  When he tried to defend himself by pointing out how supervisory employees who committed the same offense were not fired, DHS management and the MSPB Judge would not let him see that evidence.  The terminated employee appealed, and got not only the information but another chance to prove his defense. Continue reading →

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Posted on April 24, 2013 by AdminUN

HOW TO CHALLENGE FURLOUGH PROPOSALS

Thousands of feds are facing notices of proposed furloughs and the dilemma of whether or not to challenge them via the oral/written reply process or beyond.   A challenge is more likely to pay off than you think if you follow these steps. Continue reading →

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Posted on April 16, 2013 by AdminUN

DIRECTED REASSIGNMENT CASE LAW OVERHAULED

Agencies have the right to terminate an employee who refuses an order to reassign, but only so long as the agency has a bona fide need for the employee to be located elsewhere.  Or at least that is what the law has suggested for about three decades.  MSPB just overturned that approach and made it harder to terminate employees for refusing a directed reassignment. Continue reading →

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Posted on April 16, 2013 by AdminUN

COMPENSATION INCREASES UNIONS CAN BARGAIN (Pt. 2)

There are around two dozen ways unions can negotiate to put extra cash in members’ pockets.  In Part 1 of this two-part posting we covered 12 of them.  Now for some others, some of which are not yet rock solid case law. Continue reading →

Posted in Bargaining, Bargaining Negotiability, Compensation | Tagged | 2 Comments