The secret is getting out quickly. Over the last three years, employees have frequently received checks for $100,000 and more for the emotional stress managers have illegally caused them. Here is how. Continue reading
The U. S. Dept. of Labor just made it a little easier for us to understand the Family Medical Leave Act by publishing a “plain English” guide to the law. While OPM, not DOL, regulates the FMLA for federal sector employees and there are some differences between the rights of federal and all other employees, the DOL guide will help those employees and union reps understand the more fundamental parts of the law. For those who already know the basics, OPM offers a bundle of material to help them start dealing with the federal sector details. And for the local’s FMLA guru, be sure the check in regularly with the FMLA blog run by the law firm of Ogletree Deakins—as well as the Bosland blog captured in our right-side column.
Julia Akins Clark, the FLRA General Counsel, has done us all a favor, by posting on her web site a document highlighting the most significant case law holdings on dozens of key points of law. While we disagree with portions of it, it is generally an excellent guide for a union rep trying to decide whether to file an unfair labor practice charge.
AFGE’s National President John Gage announced his retirement this week in a letter he to the union’s members. Gage has been president of the federal sector’s largest union for nine years and during that time the union added 85,000 additional members. Not only was that about a 40% increase in the union’s dues-paying membership, but it is as many members as the next largest federal sector union, NTEU, has in toto over its 70-year history. John also led AFGE to a victory over NTEU in the TSA organizing campaign which puts the union in an excellent position to add thousands of more members over the next couple of years. Continue reading
The FDIC leadership is currently doing its best impression of a fish tightly caught on the end of an angler’s line. It’s struggling mightily in a desperate attempt to break free of the hook NTEU has set in it and the almost inevitable outcome. But, given that our country entrusts these same FDIC executives with protecting the nation’s banking system, it is worrisome to see their chronically irrational decision-making playing out in NTEU and FDIC, 66 FLRA 696. This is not just some sporting spectacle. Continue reading