Posted on October 20, 2016 by AdminUN

ILLEGAL CLAUSES IN SEPARATION & SETTLEMENT AGREEMENTS

Every once in a while a dispute is ended with an agreement where the employee receives some form of compensation in returning for dropping a claim against an agency. The law has been shifting quickly in that area, particularly in terms of holding unenforceable any provisions which waive an employee’s right to pursue a statutory claim through a government agency—whether it be EEOC, the Dept. of Labor, etc. While we recommend anyone involved in crafting or administering a settlement/severance agreement check with a lawyer experienced in these particular matters before making decisions, here is a good article for non-lawyers that should give you an idea of what to look for.

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Posted on October 18, 2016 by AdminUN

NEGOTIATORS, “LET’S BE CAREFUL OUT THERE.”

Wandering around the streets and back alleys of a collective bargaining neighborhood can be very dangerous—even fatal to one’s future career prospects as a negotiator. A new FLRA decision reminds us of a signature line in a decades-old cops and killers show called Hill Street Blues where the shift sergeant uttered the words quote above as he sent his officers out onto the streets. Check it out. A new decision out of FLRA highlights why negotiators need to be just as cautious. The agency proposed a significant change in working conditions and the union submitted only the following bargaining proposal, “The Union proposes maintaining the status quo pertaining to the [policy] until the completion of the term negotiations of the Master Agreement.  The [p]arties would then use the procedures agreed to in the new Master Agreement to address the issues in the [A]gency’s proposal.” Can you see why arbitrator and FLRA allowed the agency to refuse to bargain and unilaterally implement? [Hint, the proposal was timely, it was not de minimis, and the agency did not have a covered-by defense.] Continue reading →

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Posted on October 18, 2016 by AdminUN

RETIRED STEWARDS’ AND OFFICERS’ JOBS JUST GOT TOUGHER

In the early days of the labor law, FLRA made it quite clear that former employees or even those who had never been employed by a federal agency could hold any representational role in the union’s leadership. They did not get official time, but they had virtually any other right a bargaining unit employee would have in that role. However, thanks to the vastly increased emphasis on security, FLRA just made it harder for those not currently working for the agency to fulfil their union representation rolls. It has authorized agencies to require non-employees submit to an extensive background checks before he/she is given a PIV, CAC or other card authorizing him/her to access agency buildings and files. Here is what the Authority wrote in response to an agency’s objection to an arbitration award giving a non-employee access to agency files: Continue reading →

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Posted on October 17, 2016 by AdminUN

LINKEDIN AND LABOR RELATIONS

Billy Milton, David Scholl, Bruce Waxman, Mike Herlihy, and a few more folks acquired a lifetime of LR/ER/HR experience in the federal government. They were in government from the earliest days of the labor law in the late 70’s, litigated some of the major precedent making cases that we still rely on today and picked up a bundle of common sense about how to operate in a collective bargaining arena. For example, Billy Milton, known more formally as William Milton, started as a Custom Inspector in Treasury, worked on the staff of two national unions, and ultimately served as the Chief Human Capital Officer at the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture before retiring. We mention them only to bring out that there is a lot of tested LR/ER/HR talent among the retired federal employees and wit just a little bit or work on sources like LindedIn you can find and contact them.

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Posted on October 6, 2016 by AdminUN

WHY DO UNIONS REOPEN NEGOTIATIONS SO OFTEN?

It is not unusual for a union to propose as part of reopening and modifying a master or term agreement that it be allowed to reopen certain articles for another round of negotiations at pre-set times during the life of the new master agreement. For example, the new term contract could have a three year term along with a right for the union to reopen five articles after 18 months and to engage in supplemental bargaining on a handful of only-partially-resolved issues during the first year of the new term contract. Why do they do this given it takes time away from other things they could be doing and can even cost the union some significant travel and per diem money? (Hint: Creating a chance to improve the conditions of employment in those areas is barely half the reason, if that.) Continue reading →

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Posted on September 30, 2016 by AdminUN

DON’T LIKE THE FLRA DECISION? JUST SAY “NO F….ING WAY!”

Fortunately for the effectiveness of the system, most losing parties accept an FLRA decision on exceptions to an arbitration award as final and implement the remedy. However, what can a party do when it still does not agree that it got a fair hearing, that the law was properly applied, or that through its own fault it missed a major argument? For example, suppose an arbitrator ruled against an agency on a grievance claiming a violation of government-wide regulation and/or statute and then not only ordered the agency to grant gobs of back pay but also change the way it administers a large system, such as the leave approval one. Continue reading →

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Posted on September 28, 2016 by AdminUN

IS ALL FAIR IN LOVE, WAR AND BARGAINING?       

As Congress tightens the budgetary noose around the Executive Branch of government, union negotiators need to prepare for tougher arguments from management when the union proposes an agency fund its institutional travel and per diem costs, office space needs, official time desires, attorney fee requests, etc. Looking down the road we see these bargaining conversations getting into very sensitive territory for the union. For example, Continue reading →

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Posted on September 26, 2016 by AdminUN

CONGRATS TO NATCA ON COLLABORATION

A big tip of our hat to NATCA for developing several videos explaining how its collaboration with the FFA works.   If you agency is struggling with the concept, these are a good source of ideas.

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Posted on September 26, 2016 by AdminUN

DO YOU USE FEDSMILL THESE 5 WAY?

While we welcome those of you who just read our postings, we hope that most of you are squeezing everything out of Fedsmill.com that you can to build a strong labor-management process. Here are just five ways you could use our blog no matter which side of the bargaining table you sit on. Continue reading →

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Posted on September 23, 2016 by AdminUN

WE DO NOT ADVISE DOING THIS, BUT …

Most union reps know that when a manager orders an employee to do something the employee had better do it no matter how wrong the order is.  There is a collective bargaining principal called, “Work now, grieve later.” That strongly suggests most arbitrators will punish an employee for not complying when s/he could have filed a grievance and gotten the situation corrected and/or remedied. Even though there are some recognized exceptions to that principal, such as a risk of imminent physical harm to someone, employees take a risk when they count on them.  Nonetheless, it happens and if you are representing an employee who did this (or you are the HR specialist advising the manager what to do) there is an old FLRA case where it upheld the employee’s right to refuse to perform uncompensated work that you should read over.  Here is how FLRA largely told the story quoting frequently from the arbitration decision. Continue reading →

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