Posted on May 6, 2025 by AdminUN

TEST YOURSELF- FMLA, DISABILITIES, AND LIGHT DUTY

An employee, Jessie Crutch, had a long-time reasonable accommodation of being allowed to rest his hip for a few minutes every few hours while working as a warehouse custodian.  As the injury got worse and management less tolerant of his need to sit for a few times a day, he started to take time off using his FMLA rights to rest his hip.   When he returned after two days of FMLA leave, he submitted the same medical documentation he always did, namely that he could perform all his duties but needed intermittent periods to sit. However, his supervisor informed him that he would not be permitted to work again until he either submitted new medical documentation certifying that he no longer needed to rest his hip during the work day or he submitted a formal request for light duty.  So, Crutch went home.  While a sad situation for Crutch, are there any violations of law and regulation here? Continue reading →

Posted in FMLA | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on May 6, 2025 by AdminUN

DON’T RIF BORDER PATROL; REDEPLOY THEM

There must be tickles and giggles all around DOGE these days at the mushrooming number of CBP Border Patrol Agents they can label excess and RIF. Billions and billions of easy savings are just a phone call away from Elon demanding that the Agents turn in their badges and assume the position-at the unemployment office that is.  After all, today’s Border Patrol staffing was designed to counter the rampaging hoards who were streaming across our borders like a zombie apocalypse, eating our cats and dogs, taking those cushy lawn cutting jobs, and luxuriating in those janitorial toilet cleaning gigs. But now that the agents teamed up to get Trump elected and their boy has shut down the flow through a simple suspension of Constitutional rights, it is time for them to get off the public dole, sapping the dollars that could be creating more billionaires. But we are here to say, “Don’t RIF Terminate Them” because… Continue reading →

Posted in RIF | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on May 2, 2025 by AdminUN

WHAT IS THE REMEDY FOR AWS/CWS VIOLATIONS?

Lots of unions are out there filing grievances against management decisions to unilaterally terminate or change AWS/CWS schedules, e.g., 5/4/9, 4/10, etc. They are accusing agencies of violating contract provisions, CFR regulations, and unfair labor practices. They are asking for the schedules to be reinstituted, but if that is all they are seeking they are missing something big, i.e., a great remedy or two.  Here is why. Continue reading →

Posted in AWS, Grievance/Arbitration, Remedies | 2 Comments

Posted on May 2, 2025 by AdminUN

WHAT PER SE EEO REPRISAL?

The EEOC has held that attempting to dissuade an employee from participating in the EEO process is a per se violation of the EEOC’s regulations against interference in the EEO process. Lewis v. U.S. Postal Serv., EEOC Appeal No. 01922440 (Apr. 14, 1994) (attempts by management to dissuade an employee from filing a sexual harassment complaint are “unequivocally prohibited by the regulations…”); Mindy O. v. Dep’t of Homeland Sec., EEOC Appeal No. 0720150010 (Sept. 2, 2016). If you or someone you are resenting experiences this, filing a charge could generate some money for the employee even if the underlying EEO discrimination complaint is a loser. For more details see Deandre Y., v. Terence Emmert, Act’g Sec’y, Navy,  EEOC No. 2024004195 (2025)

Posted in EEO/Discrimination | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on April 26, 2025 by AdminUN

SOME HELP FOR DEPARTING IRS EMPLOYEES

Life is miserable for many IRS employees as Elon and The Donald  wipe out the IRS workforce so they can prepare to contract all the work IRS employees do to campaign donors.  But a group of former IRS executives have made a wonderful effort to help the soon-to-be-unemployed by establishing a web site full of information that could help them apply for other jobs and otherwise handle the transition. careersupport4u.com We are passing it along and hope that all our IRS readers, especially union activists, will forward the web site address on to ALL employees.  Here is their message. Continue reading →

Posted in RIF | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on April 22, 2025 by AdminUN

WHAT CAN UNIONS DO ANYMORE FOR MEMBERS?

Now that Trump has declared that suddenly hundreds of thousands of feds are involved in national security work, those employees’ unions have lost the right to bargain contracts, take grievances to arbitration, and demand certain kinds of information.  Consequently, a lot of employees are probably questioning why they should bother to pay dues anymore.  Well, there are a bundle of good reasons to remain union members that The Revengernator has not taken away from employees and their unions. For example, unions can still represent employees before third party officials in the following situations: Continue reading →

Posted in Union Rights | Tagged | 2 Comments

Posted on April 22, 2025 by AdminUN

USERRA PROTECTIONS BROADENED BY DOLE ACT

We are passing along a very useful article from a law firm about how those feds with military service, including those feds who are FEMA Reservists, now have greater protections under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act.  It is not something that comes up often for union reps, but that does not mean it can be ignored. Here is the article.

Posted in USERRA | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on April 21, 2025 by AdminUN

DON’T BET AGAINST THIS HAPPENING NEAR YOU

Somewhere early in this new White House Administration some probationary employee is going to be fired because some higher up thinks the employee does not support the new President’s political views or because some campaign contributor to the new President’s campaign complained about the employee.  When that does happen a lot of folks are going to tell the probationer that s/he has no right of appeal—but every one of them will be wrong. When a probationer is fired for what appears to be political reason they can appeal to MSPB. There is a wonderful article by an attorney at Shaw, Bransford and Roth entitled, MSPB: Agencies Terminate Probationary Employees for Political Reasons At Their Own Peril .  We recommend you look it over just so that you can be on the lookout for one of your members being fired or political reasons.  In the case discussed in the article the employee got his job back, back pay, and career status.

 

Posted in Discipline/Adverse Action, Political Discrimination | Tagged | 1 Comment

Posted on April 15, 2025 by AdminUN

BE CAREFUL GRIEVING RIF’S

RIFs are popping up all over government and right behind them are union grievances alleging a ULP and/or a violation of the negotiated agreement’s provisions on a RIF. But what about the Trump order obliterating unions’ right to represent?  If unions cannot overturn it, a contract grievance might be ruled void and never get to an arbitrator. So, unions need to do something now to protect against losing any opportunity to challenge a RIF. And that something is to… Continue reading →

Posted in RIF | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on April 8, 2025 by AdminUN

THE RIGHT TO USE ONE’S OWN CAR

Lots of feds travel for the job and lots of them are told to use a rental car for the travel rather than their own vehicle.  When a Border Patrol employee decided to use her own car instead, her agency refused to pay her the mileage costs between her hotel and job site for the 50 days she was there. The agency simply said she was not authorized to charge for  her POV, but told to share a rental car with another Agent. So, the employee filed an appeal with the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (CBCA) seeking reimbursement for about 2,000 miles. The Board dispensed with the case easily by  telling Customs and Border Protection to simply read the rules. It pointed to two in particular. Continue reading →

Posted in Travel/Per Diem | Tagged | Leave a comment