The law firm of ShawValenza just posted a very interesting article under the title above. We recommend it for those working in the reasonable accommodation area, if only as a useful thought-provoking piece about how creative accommodation can and sometimes need to be.
While the traditional place to file a ULP allegation is with the FLRA, there are considerable advantages to grieving it—especially if you make some small changes in your contract grievance procedure. Continue reading
The FLRA has made it quite clear that in order to award back pay a party must show that there is a direct causal connection between the unwarranted and unjustified personnel action and the loss of pay, allowances or differentials. That is easy to show when an agency skips the next person on the OT assignment list in violation of the contract. The issue of the agency’s ability to pay never comes into play. But what if an agency unilaterally made massive changes in its overtime assignment practices in order to increase the service it provides. For example, Continue reading
Too often union reps and LR/ER/EEO Specialists think that the only remedies available to disabled employees needing an accommodation is something personal to the employee, e.g., a larger computer screen, a better chair, or even a reader. But a brand new EEO decision highlights how far EEOC will demand the agency go to make the work environment supportive of the disabled employee Here are the five changes the Commission demanded the agency make in Latarsha A., v Bay, FERC, EEOC Nos. 0120123215 and 0120131079 (2016). Continue reading
Most contracts merely require the union to put the following in the grievance: 1- Article and section violated, 2- Description of the grieved event, and 3- Remedy desired. As clear as that or similar language appears, there are some drafting tips that will boost your chances of winning. (Be sure to check out the conclusion of this post entitled, “Grievance Drafting Tips 4, 5, & 6.) Continue reading
A conference is coming up that will feature the four most important women in federal sector labor and employee relations. The National Academy of Arbitrators along with FMCS is sponsoring a program in early May where the four Presidential appointees will take the stage to answer questions. They are Mary Jacksteit, Chairman FSIP; Carol Waller Pope, Chairman FLRA; Allison Beck, Director FMCS; and Susan Grundmann, Chairman MSPB. The meeting will be in Atlantic City, NJ and we hear rumors that there are just 29 slots left. Here is the agenda. This track is intended primarily for Federal Sector management and union representatives. Top Federal policy makers will describe where their agencies stand and identify hot issues and trends. Skills to be imparted include bullet-proofing cases, briefs and awards, preparing successful challenges and defenses in discipline cases, dealing with remedies and handling arbitration appeals. Format will include lectures, panel discussions, audience participation and mock hearing. Experienced arbitrators, advocates and attorneys will be there to guide attendees through various segments. For more information contact FMCS Commissioner Barbara Lichtman at 215-717-7500 or email blichtman@fmcs.gov.
In theory, it should be hard for unions to even maintain prior membership levels, much less grow, with the size of government decreasing in every agency. But apparently theory is no match for talented union leadership. In January we congratulated IFPTE, IAFF and the NLRBU for increasing membership despite severe government-wide staffing cuts. NATCA has also now reported a net membership increase last year. But the big news is that the 800 pound gorilla among federal sector unions, AFGE, has removed all doubt about the success of those four being a fluke. AFGE just filed its LM-2 for 2015 showing that it increased its net membership by almost 13,000 (From 281,731 last year to 294,257 this year.) That means it has increased membership every year since 2000, which none of its so-called rivals has come close to doing. AFGE certainly has our congrats and admiration, but that cannot possibly compare to the satisfaction it must already be feeling. Nothing is as certain a measure of employee satisfaction with a union as setting membership records year-after-year. Hopefully, other unions will learn from what AFGE has done to reverse their own membership declines. Here is what we can tell you about how it did it. Continue reading
Joe Davidson of the Washington Post just wrote a piece every federal sector union rep should read with the same title as this post. It outlines how a certain Congressman from Utah is getting ready to drag unions through the grinder. Once the Congressman has names of specific full-time union reps very little can stop him from calling them to testify before his Committee. We hope that no one out there thinks that this is going to be a friendly examination of possible reform efforts. We also hope that unions are going to do something more than keep their heads down and hope that when this trailer truck of a probe rolls over them the tires do not leave tread marks a good comb over can’t hide. The Congressman is getting ready to do a very one-sided, allegedly “fair and balanced” review of the federal ER/LR program. Unions need to find some academic allies who can generate an actual fair and balanced approach as well as a little evidence of their own on how wasteful probes like this are. Somebody start thinking creatively.
One of the prices we pay for the otherwise exquisite benefits of evolution is that every so often it runs amok and gives us things like body piercings, kale shakes, and the Honey Boo Boo show. So, we wanted to alert you to a budding mutation of the arbitration process that threatens to slow work-place justice to the pace of a three-legged turtle huffing Benadryl. It is called the “implementation meeting.” (IM) Normally, we never agree with FLRA Member Pizzella nor find what he writes in any way useful. But he recently lifted his nose from Barlett’s Quotations long enough to string together a sentence that while condescending is neither legally moronic nor pathetically pretentious. Writing about the impact of an arbitrator’s use of IMs on the dispute resolution process, the FLRA’s own resident Koch-ite noted, “The dispute began in 2002. Since then (if you are counting, that is fourteen (14) years), the case has been returned to Arbitrator Andrée McKissick at least thirteen (13) times and now returns to the Authority for the sixth time.” (See HUD and AFGE, Council 222, 69 FLRA 312 (February, 2016) Rather than completely resolve arbitration disputes or at least push them back at the parties to solve themselves consistent with clear instructions, the IM mutation settles into a labor-management host party and starts replicating its activity. Here is how it works. Continue reading
Just a few short years after choosing AFGE, TSA union leaders are commanding the kind of respect that some entire national unions never get. Check out their web site for pictures of Bernie AND Hillary meeting with the dozen or so employee union leaders of this single AFGE council. It was a great opportunity to the two national political leaders away with a good idea of the specific problems of TSA employees. Congrats, Council 100 for your long-term planning, broadly involved national decision-making, and commitment to not letting the TSA story get lost.