Given how casually Trump is activating National Guard units don’t be surprised if some of your members are pulled away soon. A court has just improved the benefits they get while deployed. Thought we would pass that news along just to alert you so you are not totally unaware of the change when a member approaches you. Check out the FEDweek post here.
Sexual harassment is a well-known and well-litigated matter. Mainstream media write about it often and most employers have policies prohibiting it. But how many have heard of “age harassment” or an age-hostile work environment? Here is what it is about and how to prove it. In a federal circuit court case titled Milan Dediol V. Best Chevrolet Incorporated Donald Clay, a 65 year old man claimed that his manager regularly addressed him as “old motherf****r,” “old man,” and “pops.” Continue reading
Hey, Harvard! You will get a kick out of this. While Trump is beating you senseless because he alleges you do not treat Jews properly, he just nominated as Special Counsel, the government’s top ethics enforcer, someone who spends his time standing up for antisemites and similar trash. Just google the word “Ingrassia” with the words Fuentes or Tate. For Feds this probably means that going to the Special Counsel for help will not only be useless, but probably result in that office opening an investigation into you as a suspected DEI-loving, waste-generating, immigrant-supportive, anti-Christian, multi-gender enemy of the people. We can hope that enough Senators will be offended by this nomination to stop it, but that will not happen unless a whole lot of feds write, email or call their Senators asking them to vote against this insanity.
AFGE just won an injunction stopping White House actions against federal employees that is not just a “whopper,” but a “mega-whopper.” The Trump-Musk axis ordered agencies to undertake wholesale RIFs’ so it can generate enough alleged savings to justify another tax cut for the wealthy—and contract out the work to privateers. AFGE creatively put together a team of other unions, about a dozen non-profit organizations, and six local governments charging the President’s actions are against the law and arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion. Long story short, AFGE won an injunction blocking any RIF’s for two weeks while the court considers further action against the White House Fed-haters. Continue reading
As is our practice here at the Fedsmill conglomerate, we are calling together all our writers, analysts, undercover plants, snitches, and Chechen hackers on the payroll for a powwow about how to deal with Trump, Musk, and the rest of the Fed-haters. We have rented a Trulli for each to shield ourselves from overhead spy satellites, drones and death rays. This will take a couple of weeks because the Chechens and snitches do not get along. We will miss you. When we get back we will catch you up on anything that happens in the interim. Ciao!
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
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
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
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)