Posted on November 6, 2019 by AdminUN

DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE DUAL NATURE OF LABOR AGREEMENTS?

FLRA just issued a decision in which it upheld an agency’s right to unilaterally terminate the terms of an existing labor agreement because the labor agreement said either party had the right to do so X days after the term of the agreement ended. Let’s assume that is a correct reading of that contract. But, that hardly clears the path for the agency to do what it wants because labor agreements have two natures.  First, they exist to memorialize the parties’ agreements on the way things should be done, e.g., vacancy announcements must be posted for ten days, overtime must be equitably distributed, etc. They also exist, however, to create a benchmark for identifying changes in the way things are done. For example,… Continue reading →

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Posted on November 6, 2019 by AdminUN

SES EXEC EXPOSES HR B.S. & GETS $250,000.+

Kudos to the Dept. of Agriculture executive who took on the bogus promotion selection system at Agriculture and won big. She filed an (EEO) complaint alleging that she was discriminated against based on her gender when from 2010 to the present Agriculture failed to pay her at a level similar to a male employee performing similar work. She claimed that violated the Equal Pay Act (EPA) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  In May 2010, the Agency offered the Complainant the position of Associate Chief Information Officer (ACIO), at a starting salary of $159,416, lower than her male predecessor’s starting salary of $172,200 in 2008.  HR tried to explain this away by claiming that the Complainant and her male comparator were hired by different people and therefore there was no intent to discriminate. Sounds hugely bogus to us, but EEOC slapped Agriculture’s argument down by pointing out that. . . Continue reading →

Posted in Equal Pay | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on October 31, 2019 by AdminUN

ISN’T THIS A MORE POWERFUL LEAD?

Not long ago a major federal sector union issued a press release about the impact of Trump’s looming anti-federal employee personnel regulations.  This was its lead sentence. “The Office of Personnel Management today took another step toward dismantling due process rights for public-sector workers in the federal government.” There is nothing technically wrong with it, but it misses an opportunity to remind Americans just who these anti-employee proposals are going to hurt. It seems to us that a better lead for any union press release focused on Trump’s revenge against federal employee and their unions should read like this. “The Office of Personnel Management today took another step toward dismantling due process rights for the largest group of military veterans and disabled employees in the country—federal employees.”  Unions are fighting with at least one arm tied behind their own back by ignoring the benefit of actively allying with organizations representing veteran and disabled employees. They should be proud of feds having not only the most diverse workforce of any sizable employer in the country, but also of being the primary employer of veterans and the disabled.

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Posted on October 31, 2019 by AdminUN

TWO ROOKIE MISTAKES

A recent FLRA decision opens with these three sentences, “In this case, Arbitrator Anthony R. Orman, found that the Agency violated Article 21, Section 4 of the parties’ collective-bargaining agreement by failing to distribute overtime in a “fair and equitable manner.”[ But he denied the Union’s requested backpay remedy because the Union failed to show which employees were available and would have accepted the opportunity to work the overtime.  We find that the Arbitrator’s denial of backpay is not contrary to the Back Pay Act (BPA). Continue reading →

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Posted on October 30, 2019 by AdminUN

UNION NEGOTIATOR’S QUIZ

Imagine you are in this situation.  You are in term negotiations and the agency refused to bargain over three provisions that have been in the agreement for more than a decade.  It claims they are suddenly non-negotiable.  When the larger dispute went to the Panel for resolution, in line with its anti-union approach to life no matter how much it hurt employees, the Panel ruled that it would resolve all the disputes except for the ones the agency alleged to be non-negotiable. When the Panel spit out a final decision, the agency implemented it as soon as possible.  As for the three provisions the Panel did not address, the agency simply replaced the existing agreement language with its own last proposal. One of the proposals provided that employees could choose the shift they worked on by seniority, e.g., the 7 a.m. to 3:30 pm shift or the 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. shift.   What does the union do now if it believes that existing FLRA case removes any doubt about the negotiability of the proposals? Continue reading →

Posted in Bargaining Negotiability, Grievance/Arbitration, Strategy/tactics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on October 30, 2019 by AdminUN

3 YEARS, 5 MONTHS & 19 DAYS IS NOT PROMPT

Because the collective bargaining agreement characterized the grievance process as designed to provide for the “prompt” settlement of grievances, an arbitrator decided to void the union’s grievance on behalf of a removed employee as not promptly processed. The reference to “prompt” efforts appears in dozens of agreements, and this case signals that more unions are going to lose the grievance entirely when they invoke arbitration, but then take months and years to request an arbitration panel, schedule a hearing date, file post-hearing briefs. Moreover, a Court of Appeals case gives agencies even more reason to punish foot-dragging unions. Continue reading →

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Posted on October 26, 2019 by AdminUN

WHY WE WENT DARK- Sorry about being down for about 4 weeks.  It seems some dissatisfied reader screwed with our site. After lots of tech help and a few bills to pay we hope we are back for another long run. We have posted 994 articles to date and hope to double that before we are done.

Posted in Union Administration | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on October 1, 2019 by AdminUN

MSPB POLICY DIRECTOR ENDORSES PASS-FAIL EVALUATION SYSTEMS

If you listen to the anti-labor and anti-employee zealots clogging the OPM and FLRA policy making levels, you would think that union proposals to establish Pass-Fail appraisal ratings systems are Satanic-derived plots to destroy the world. So, we found it interesting that the folks in the MSPB Policy and Evaluation shop, who make decisions based on actual research rather than what will sound good on FOX new publicly disagreed with OPM and FLRA’s political operatives.  Continue reading →

Posted in Bargaining Negotiability, Performance | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on September 20, 2019 by AdminUN

RELIGIOUS REFUSALS TO DO WORK

QUESTION: When can an employee demand that he or she not be required to perform certain tasks?  ANSWER: When performance of the work conflicts with the employee’s religious convictions and it is reasonable for the employer to accommodate the employee the agency likely would be required to let the employee avoid the task. Continue reading →

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Posted on September 19, 2019 by AdminUN

YIKES! SOMEONE CALL IVANKA. STAT!

The FSIP appears to have turned into a treasonous entity. Since Jared is busy putting the finishing touches on peace in the Mideast, Ivanka seems to be the next most powerful person to alert.  In a recent decision dealing with official time the Panel uttered what can only be read as hearsay.  It said that in disputes involving official time it is not going to adopt an agency’s position in the absence of actual data or evidence. What are they going to do next?  Stay at other than a Trump hotel when in DC? How insulting to the President that his staff is expected to provide evidence to back up their statements. Continue reading →

Posted in FSIP | Tagged | 2 Comments