This post is about unions’ newly bestowed right to negotiate over the “types… of employees or positions assigned to any organizational subdivision, work project or tour of duty.” FLRA has ruled that the word “types” refers “to distinguishable classes, kinds, groups, or categories of employees or positions that are relevant to the establishment of staffing patterns.” For example, it found Dental Hygienists are different types of employees than Dental Assistants and temporary employees differ from full-time employees. But distinguishing between types of employees is the easy part of drafting a negotiable 7106(b)(1) proposal compared to two traps awaiting the union. Continue reading
EEOC recently caught the managers at the Voice of American using a not so common trick to deny a couple of employees promotions. The managers simply withdrew certain duties from the employees’ jobs so that when it came time to determine who was operating at what grade level there was no basis to promote these two women to higher grades like their colleagues. When the employees filed charges alleged sex discrimination, along with other bases, EEOC spotted the illegal scheme immediately. It not only ordered that the employees be retroactively promoted back to mid-2017, but also that the agency restore the tasks it had withdrawn that were associated with more difficult and prestigious work. For more details, check out Madlyn F. and Lashawn C., v. Kelu Chao, US Agency for Global Media, EEOC Nos. 2019005498 and 2020003512 (2021)
When an employee asked for a change in her work schedule because of her medical condition, but did not technically request a “reasonable accommodation” for a disability, the agency concluded it did not have to treat it as a reasonable accommodation request under the Rehabilitation Act or ADA law. So, when some jobs were about to open that would enable her to continue working, all the agency offered was to let her compete for them. The agency ultimately fired the employee for being unable to do her job. As part of its decision ordering the agency to rehire the employee with back pay, interest and a few other bundles of cash, EEOC made these two often applicable points about reasonable accommodation cases: Continue reading
It happens all too often to gays, women, minorities, union reps, the disabled, seniors and others considered too different from those with the power to make decisions – and that is why it is so important that union reps familiarize themselves with the details of how it is done. This posting explains how the Dep’t. of Interior managed to screw over a gay Supervisory Fire Engine Captain who ranked first among seven candidates for promotion when the original Best Qualified List was constructed. Continue reading
Some managers in a Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Patrol Texas port set up a Facebook page allegedly as “an outreach program for suicide prevention and awareness” for current and former employees. It had about 11,000 subscribers. The ranking manager testified before EEOC that the information shared on the page was to be work-related, e.g. about job swaps, accolades, achievements, deaths, and port of entry stories. He also affirmed under oath that he and three other agency employees monitored the site for any derogatory, inflammatory, and/or offensive posts. When found, they were deleted and the writer blocked. Well, apparently those monitors did not do the deletion part of their job well because a female CBP Officer filed an EEO charge, and EEOC found the CBP Nation Facebook page images and other material that were sexists and otherwise objectively offensive to women. You can guess the rest. EEOC ordered the agency to figure out how much to pay this female employee in compensatory damages and attorney fees, and to discipline the involved managers unless it had a good reason. If you want to read more about the case, check out Elenor S. v. Chad F. Wolf, Act’g Sec., DHS (CBP), EEOC Appeal No. 2019005538 (2020)