Posted on January 4, 2024 by AdminUN

JOAN, ETHEL, FEDSMILL AND TEMPORARY PROMOTION BACK PAY

Almost 18 months ago, on July 29, 2022, we spelled out why OPM was wrong to prohibit paying  employees detailed or otherwise assigned to higher graded work for more than 120 days a year. In fact, we suggested it bordered on wage theft. In that July post we also virtually begged unions to get behind our argument and after a few days of no action some did. We know that our post was also passed around at OPM as soon as it came out. Well, as we predicted, OPM had no choice but to change its regulations once the arguments we outlined were officially put forth by unions. A Gov Exec article explains the looming changes, but the bottom line is employees may be entitled to big chunks of back pay if they act now. For example, … Continue reading →

Posted in Back Pay, Higher Graded Details | Tagged | 2 Comments

Posted on January 4, 2024 by AdminUN

UNION WIN OF THE CENTURY?

For years now, there have been about 4,000 employees at the National Institute of Health (NIH) just outside Washington, DC who have been eager to organize a union.  Their colleagues at the Food and Drug Administration did years decades ago as did almost every other piece of Health and Human Services.  So, the NIH folks knew what they had to do.  They needed a union that understood how to represent professional federal employees because virtually all of those 4,000 NIH employees are advance degree scientists.  They needed a union that knew its way around the federal sector labor relations maze, which is very different from the private sector. And they needed a union known for giving members a very large democratic role in deciding things important to them, not just to the national leaders. Having worked at a university for years, I know how absolutely abhorrent “top-down” control is to scientists and academics. The NIH employees chose the United Auto Workers (UAW), which best we can tell has no federal sector experience nor other federal units. But they are known for letting members self-determine their fate and they represent grad students at several universities around the country.  This is an organizing coup for the UAW and we wish them only the best.

Posted in Organizing | Tagged | 1 Comment

Posted on December 18, 2023 by AdminUN

ARRRRRRGH, SHAPE UP, FLRA! YOU JUST ALLOWED FED SECTOR SEX SLAVERY 

Earlier this month, FLRA upheld an arbitrator’s ruling that the union loses the right to file a grievance over a continuing violation of a contract, regulation, or law when it waits more the negotiated number of days for filing a grievance, e.g., 14,  from the date the union first knew about the violation. Consequently, it could never file a grievance over that violation ever again in the history of time—and beyond. Sounds absurd?  It is and FLRA should be ashamed of its anti-employee shortsightedness on this matter.  Here is why FLRA is sooooooo wrong. Continue reading →

Posted in Grievance/Arbitration | Tagged | 2 Comments

Posted on December 18, 2023 by AdminUN

FILE THESE GRIEVANCES NOW

The Supreme Court is considering whether an employee can file an EEO charge when an employer merely reassigns the employee to significantly less desirable work—without a reduction is pay. To date, most courts have required that the employee suffer more tangible harm than a mere reassignment to have a legitimate discrimination claim, e.g., suffered a salary demotion, lost out on a promotion, assigned less desirable hours, etc. Many of the media pundits who follow the Court’s recent public arguments felt the Justices showed a lot of sympathy for broadening that standard. Consequently, it occurred to us that employees who suffered any action they felt damaging in the last six months would be wise to file a grievance or EEO charge now.  If they wait for the Court’s decision in the spring, it might be too late for them.  Check out the NY Times story entitled, “Supreme Court Analyzes Discrimination Law in Job Transfer Case” for more details the new kind of harm the court is considering, e.g., moving from a fixed to rotating shift with weekend duties, being ordered back into uniform after plain clothes duty, losing overtime opportunities. Get the word out to your stewards and members that they should talk to the union if they recently suffered similar harm due to a discriminatory motive.

Posted in EEO/Discrimination | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on December 12, 2023 by AdminUN

WHAT A UNION THAT AFGE IS

This past summer we posted a few articles about how hypocritical it is for a national union officer to fire any employee for other than just cause (or something like it) and without appeal rights. Sadly, we failed to mention that AFGE’s Constitution actually does not allow such arbitrary terminations.  It states in Article IX that, ”The National President may discharge employees other than elected officers only for just cause. If a discharged employee is covered by a collective bargaining agreement or contract, he or she shall have such grievance rights as are provided in that agreement. The NEC shall establish a grievance procedure for all other full-time employees not covered by contract.” AFGE’s protection of even those who have left the bargaining unit or are otherwise not in it is something all unions should copy. Hats off to AFGE for being union to the core rather than adopting the practices of or profit business leaders who often thrive on exterminating vulnerable employees no matter how long their service to the organization. We love it when a union sticks to core collective bargaining values for all its employees.

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Posted on December 12, 2023 by AdminUN

RETROACTIVE PAY FOR TEMPORARY PROMOTION & $377,000 MORE

What do you do if your supervisor dumps a bundle of higher graded work on you, but refuses to give you a temporary promotion for doing it? Fight! That’s what you do. The two Trump appointees to the FLRA screwed up feds’ ability to force the agency to pay for the level of work it assigns an employee, but a new case out of EEOC showed how it offers a reasonable path to the money you are owed and more.  In this case an employee was awarded a five-year retroactive promotion with step increases or about $50,000, plus over $137,000 in damages for the emotional harm she suffered and over $233,000 in attorney fees. She proved the agency denied her the promotion due to her race and prior EEO activity. The case is another good reminder why it is important to consider bringing in an EEO allegation when you grieve a contract obligation. For example, …    Continue reading →

Posted in Higher Graded Details | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on December 5, 2023 by AdminUN

WHY PROBATIONERS SHOULD JOIN THE UNION

Although the urban rumor is that probationers have no way to challenge an agency when it terminates them, experienced union reps know that is far from the truth.  In fact, we just saw a case out of EEOC where the Commission ordered an employee dismissed during her probationary period reinstated with two years of back pay, interest, retroactive promotions and step increases, and compensatory damages. Over 99% of probationers would have no idea how to challenge an agency’s decision to fire them, which is where the union comes it. The employee in this case was terminated for failing to pass an agency administered test after the agency ignored her request for an accommodation of her learning disability.  For details, check out Alena C. v. Denis R. McDonough, Sec’y, DVA, EEOC No. 2023001110 (2023) Union reps should make sure that all probationers know that not only do they have rights, and that paying union dues can be worlds cheaper than hiring a private attorney to file an EEO claim.

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Posted on December 4, 2023 by AdminUN

IS THIS SEXUAL HARASSMENT INTOLERABLE?

A DoD male supervisor did the following to a female employee: made repeated sexual comments and innuendoes to her, regularly reminded her that he was “watching her,” invited her over to his house when his wife was away, often touched her and at least twice “touched her buttocks.”  Moreover, when her co-workers started harassing her because they thought something was going on between her and the supervisor, he did nothing to discourage that. Nor did he back off when she started having panic attacks and became depressed. A real gem of a guy, but did that meet the legal definition of sexual harassment? Continue reading →

Posted in Gender/Sex | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on November 28, 2023 by AdminUN

NWSEO $500 NEW MEMBER INCENTIVE

Many unions have offered cash incentives for employees to become members and to the members who sign them up. But we have never seen a program like the National Weather Service Employees Organization has in place.  For example, every eligible bargaining unit employee who joins less than one year after their hire date receives a NWSEO dues rebate in the form of a $500 Visa gift card in their welcome packet. If they join after a year of employment, they get $250 and the members who sign these folks up get a $100 certificate per new member. No wonder the union recently had more members than it has ever had. NWSEO has set the standard for determining just how important new members are. Here’s hoping that other unions, especially those sitting on a bundle of surplus cash and investments, follow NWSEO’s lead.

Posted in Membership Building | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on November 28, 2023 by AdminUN

FEDSMILL TAKES ON A NEW ROLE

When we started back in 2011 we decided to focus on passing labor relations and EEO information to union reps in all federal sector unions.  But the longer we look at how unions operate, the more we are convinced that it is time to add a third area of emphasis, i.e., union democracy.  Over time ALL organizations develop a bureaucracy and if bureaucracies do one thing it is that they tend to give the top leadership tier of an organization more power at the expense of others’ influence.  That is generally not good.  So, in the future, you can expect to see more stories about dues systems scams, union committee manipulation, election tricks, convention games, finance schemes, and the lack of checks and balances on union presidents’ power. This is not a decision we reached lightly. We could have taken this on anytime in the last 12 years we have been publishing, but it was only recently that saw how pervasive leadership oppression and/or control has become. As always, we will welcome your ideas about issues we should target. 

Posted in Union Administration | 3 Comments