Posted on March 21, 2023 by AdminUN

“INTERIM RELIEF” MEANS MONEY

A VA employee was fired from his job, appealed to MSPB, and the Administrative Judge ordered that he be granted “interim relief.” That is what the Board calls it when the agency is ordered to put the employee back on the job while it decides whether to appeal the decision to the full Board and courts. The reinstatement is not final until the agency loses the appeal or chooses not to timely appeal. However, in this case the agency decided the employee was “unable to work” and placed him on leave without pay rather than compensate him while the appeal was pending. That is not an outrageously unfair decision; it is just the wrong decision under the law. Continue reading →

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Posted on March 16, 2023 by AdminUN

SHOULD I RUN FOR NATIONAL UNION PRESIDENT?

The current president of one of the major federal employee unions has just announced he is not going to run for another term. That has probably set off a firestorm of interest among the union’s local leaders and staff about whether they run for office. So, I have started thinking about what a union needs in a national president. Here is my take. Continue reading →

Posted in Union Politics | Tagged | 2 Comments

Posted on March 14, 2023 by AdminUN

LACTATION QUESTION: WHAT DO YOU CALL IT WHEN…

…(a) management was unable to give an employee access to the lactation room, forcing her to go home on leave to express, (b) management let employees use the lactation room as a break area which forced a woman to wait for it to clear, and (c) another 40-minute delay was required because management was using the room for training? EEOC called it… Continue reading →

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Posted on March 14, 2023 by AdminUN

CALLING ALL UNION FMLA SPECIALISTS

A number of unions have one person designated to help members who encounter problems getting their Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) rights respected. Those representatives need all the help they can get to deal with the often complex situations members face.  Perhaps the best sources for expanding one’s understanding of what FMLA rights employees have is to stay up on the latest court developments.  The American Bar Association makes that easy to do by annually publishing an update on FMLA judicial developments.  They organize and summarize the court ruling so that even we non-lawyers can benefit from this.  You can find the latest update by clicking here.

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Posted on March 7, 2023 by AdminUN

HOW TO BEAT A “LACK OF CANDOR” DISCIPLINE CHARGE

MSPB has a long record of terminating employees not just for making outright false statements, but also for failing to volunteer information about an incident that management did not even ask for.  The former is often justified, but the latter has never impressed us as fair. So, we were very surprised to see the employee reinstated in a recent case based on the facts, but we give a “tip of the hat” to MSPB for honorably adhering to the rules of evidence over gut-level conclusions.  The case shows how union reps might be able to save an employee’s job despite the initial superficial stink of the employee’s statements and actions. Continue reading →

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Posted on March 7, 2023 by AdminUN

IRS APPLICANT GETS 11 YEARS BACK PAY, LEAVE, & A JOB

Back in 2012 IRS informed an Africa-American applicant he was conditionally selected for a vacancy and gave him a preemployment background form to complete.  When he noted that he was currently under charges for violations of the law, stating he was “falsely accused of engaging in an attempted sexual assault,” and that his trial was pending IRS withdrew his selection. Once the employee filed an EEO complaint alleging race discrimination, IRS declared that it withdrew the offer because it does not allow applicants with “open” criminal matters to enter on duty, or until case disposition information is received. Almost two years after it withdrew the job offer, all charges against Complainant were dismissed and expunged. Continue reading →

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Posted on February 28, 2023 by AdminUN

THE NEXT STEPS FOR COVID-TRIGGERED EDP/HDP

We have no idea what is going on in the conference rooms of the lawyers who just lost the case that denies most feds the right to extra compensation based on prolonged exposure to COVID pathogens. They are probably wondering if there is any chance to get the Supreme Court to reconsider and overturn the recent Federal Circuit decision. Generally, when 10 judges out of 12 vote against you and no other circuit court disagrees with that decision there is little to no chance the Supremes will take the case. However, no matter how small the chances of overturning this adverse decision, there still is a chance by going somewhere other than the Federal Circuit Court. For example, …  Continue reading →

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Posted on February 28, 2023 by AdminUN

MSPB BURIES RELIGIOUS COVID MASK PROTESTOR

A GS-6 Pharmacy Technician refused to wear a mask around the workplace during the COVID epidemic despite an agency order issued in November 2020. It required that they be worn everywhere on the premises unless the employee was alone in a room and the door was closed. When informed she would not be allowed on the premises any longer unless she wore the mask, she claimed a religious accommodation. Then she just stopped coming to work for several weeks until her claim was resolved.  When the agency rejected her religious objection because there were no accommodations acceptable to both the agency and employee that did not create an undue hardship for the agency, it fired her for her AWOL. Continue reading →

Posted in Discipline/Adverse Action | Tagged | 1 Comment

Posted on February 27, 2023 by AdminUN

BARGAINING I&I OVER SHUTDOWN FURLOUGHS

Although it makes no sense outside the world of “stir-up-the-base-and-its contributions” politics, the odds are increasing that federal employees will have to endure shutdown furloughs once again in the near future. Consequently, if your union has not already addressed that situation in an existing agreement, it is a good time to open negotiations over the potential furloughs using the union’s right to initiate mid-term bargaining. If you do, we suggest you watch the video where an attorney explains how to conduct I&I bargaining over this topic.  The attorney, Raven Hall, had a distinguished career as an negotiator and arbitration attorney with a federal employee union, followed by a tour with a DC law firm and the Teamsters’ General Counsel staff.  She is now in the AFL-CIO General Counsel shop.

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Posted on February 21, 2023 by AdminUN

NO ENVIRONMENTAL DIFFERENTIAL PAY (EDP) FOR COVID EXPOSURE

Not sure why the union chose to take this case to the generally anti-employee Federal Circuit Court rather than to arbitration. Afterall, arbitrators have ordered EDP and the FLRA has upheld those orders. But the Federal Circuit just slammed, nailed, and super glued the door shut on hopes of tens of thousands of feds who had to face inordinate exposure to COVID during its pre-vax days. Continue reading →

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