Posted on August 3, 2016 by AdminUN

NFFE LIGHTS UP AUO-FLSA DISTINCTIONS FOR LEO PERSONNEL

What do you do if law enforcement officers in your unit are suddenly switched to AUO compensation for work that for years they had been paid FLSA overtime to do?  Our advice is that you check out two FLRA decisions NFFE litigators won that establish a fairly bright light on how unions can get their members the higher rate of compensation. In DoAg, Forest Service and NFFE, Local 5300, 68 FLRA 90 (2014) the agency tried to save some money by switching folks from FLSA to AUO for the time the officers would be patrolling a large, multi-day public event at one of the national forests.  NFFE objected and took the agency to arbitration and then FLRA to get their members justly compensated. Continue reading →

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Posted on August 1, 2016 by AdminUN

HOW UNIONS  FORFEIT MID-TERM BARGAINING RIGHTS

Although FLRA has issued close to a half-dozen decisions upholding the concept described below, unions still are making the mistake that forfeits their right to bargain over mid-term changes.  So we thought we would refresh a few recollections. In POPA, 66 FLRA 247, Management made a mid-term proposal to change one part of a performance awards program and the union responded with proposals addressing the full range of performance award program issues.  Management promptly notified the union that most of the union’s proposals were “outside the scope of its change” and therefore management was not obligated to bargain over them. When POPA refused to limit the bargaining to just management’s change, management unilaterally implemented the change and the union filed a ULP grievance challenging that. It lost and here is why. Continue reading →

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Posted on August 1, 2016 by AdminUN

HOW NOT TO DEAL WITH TROUBLESOME UNIT MEMBERS

What’s a union leader to do when a non-member (or even a member) openly criticizes the union or one of its leaders in front of other bargaining unit employees during work time? What if the employee was not just loud and disruptive, but also threatened to get the union decertified or the union leader removed from office? Can the union leader report the incident to management and ask it to discipline the employee for “totally losing control” with a co-worker? The answer is yes, but the FLRA just explained to one union vice president what they had better not do in reporting the employee. Continue reading →

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Posted on August 1, 2016 by AdminUN

WHAT DOES A USERRA VIOLATION LOOK LIKE?

Most everyone knows a law was passed in the 90’s protecting federal employees who are also armed services members or veterans from discrimination. But we suspect not many feel confident that they could recognize a potential violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). So, we thought we would pass on something taken verbatim from the Office of Special Counsel web page that highlights a few examples of actual situations where OSC used the law to protect feds. Union reps might want to forward this information to members to help them recognize how the law could work for them. Continue reading →

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Posted on July 31, 2016 by AdminUN

NWSEO CHARGES AGENCY SPIES ON ITS MEMBERS

The Washington Post just posted a story about the employees of the National Weather Service alleging that the agency has spied on them through the union’s Facebook page. Long time NWSEO union leader Dan Sobien rarely makes unfounded accusations, which means this is an interesting case to know about and watch. Click over to the article to get caught up. “Weather Service Conducts ‘Illegal Surveillance’ on Staff, Union Says.”

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Posted on July 27, 2016 by AdminUN

HANDLING INTERMITTENT, UNPREDICTABLE LEAVE REQUESTS AFTER FMLA ENDS

Our fellow bloggers at FMLA Insights just published some advice for handling those situations where a chronically sick employees runs out of FMLA leave.  It is a good piece for any union rep involved in one of these cases and nearly indispensable reading for an ER/LR Specialist who deals with FMLA issues.

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Posted on July 27, 2016 by AdminUN

UNIONS USE TECHNOLOGY TO GROW MEMBERSHIP      

Unions are getting smarter about recruiting new members and like every other institution in this country that means using more technology for everything—including membership growth. Here is a good summary piece on a larger study published by Bloomberg’s Daily Labor Report that outlines just how they are doing it. We recommend you check it out.

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Posted on July 23, 2016 by AdminUN

LOLLAPALOOZA OF ATTORNEY FEE CASE

See if you can guess in advance of what happened when an attorney agreed to the following conditions for his fee for representing a federal employee: (1) he promised her that his work on the petition for review would cost her nothing; (2) if his efforts on the appellant’s behalf were successful, he would apply for an award of attorney fees; (3) he would give the appellant any fees he was awarded up to the amount she already had paid to the other attorneys; (4) the same understanding applied to any services Mr. Burka might provide in connection with any addendum proceeding after the Board ruled on the petition for review; and (5) if any funds for Mr. Burka’s services were left over, they would be donated to charity after consultation with the appellant. (See Rumsey v. DOJ, 2016 MSPB 28 (2016) for a very complex cases that sets a few new rules for determining fees that FLRA and arbitrators might soon be using.)

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Posted on July 20, 2016 by AdminUN

FEDSMILL CAN IMPROVE NATIONAL STAFF HELP, BUT WE NEED A SPONSOR FIRST

Have you ever tried to get in touch with the national union staff person assigned to your local to deal with an urgent matter, but not been able to connect for several days? Have you ever had a national staff representative assigned to your local who is new to the job, knows very little, or just is not very good at what she does? Have you ever gotten an answer from the national staff person assigned to your local that you feel certain is wrong, but you have not had the knowledge of regulations and case law to argue with him? We at Fedsmill.com have seen those situations and think we just might have the answer. We want to build an on-line data base that would give local reps the answer to hundreds of common ER/LR problems with less than a half dozen taps on their I-Pad, laptop, PC, or phone. BUT WE NEED A UNION TO SPONSOR (FUND) THIS WORK, AND IF IT FULLY SPONSORS THE WORK, IT ALONE WILL OWN IT. NO OTHER UNIONS OR AGENCIES WILL HAVE ACCESS. Continue reading →

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Posted on July 16, 2016 by AdminUN

HOW TO REACH TERM AGREEMENT QUICKLY

The single most pernicious, if not malignant, aspect of the American collective bargaining process is the ability of one party to drag out bargaining to drive up the other party’s costs and pain. Why? Because money and pain are the primary tools of bargaining power—and power is controls when one side does not have the facts, reason, or fairness its your side. If a union can drag out agency-initiated midterm bargaining for years over a proposed automation of certain work tasks or the reduction of certain stipends it can cost an agency millions—not to mention an enormous loss of executive-level influence. If an agency can drag out a union-proposed modification of the term agreement, it can delay for years enhancements to the performance awards, telework, and AWS programs, thereby undermining the perceived political clout of the elected union leaders. Consequently, it is vital that the potential victim of a delay strategy stay focused on the very tangible tactics that defeat it. This post addresses what a union can do step up the pace of term bargaining while a subsequent one will address tactics the employer can employ to move midterm bargaining along. Continue reading →

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