NEW EEOC PUBLICATION OUTLINES ADA RIGHTS OF HIV-POSITIVE EMPLOYEES
The title says it all. If you area involved with an HIV-positive employee, as a union rep or manager, this is something you need to look through.
ATHEIST ENTITLED TO “RELIGIOUS” ACCOMMODATION
How far can unbelievers insist their employers go to respect their beliefs about religion? Here is an interesting story about a new court case that suggests atheists have as much of a right to demand an accommodation as others. (Mathis v. Christian Heating and Air, No. 13-3740, ED PA, 2016))
DO UNION ATTORNEY FEES VIOLATE NONMEMBERS’ CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS?
Labor unions are breathing a sigh of relief now that Justice Scalia chose an ultra-rightwing meeting of animal killers to steal the spotlight by following the groups’ prey to another place. He looked like a sure vote to uphold a claim by the Christian Educators Association that it violates California public school teachers’ Constitutional rights to force them to pay any union dues, even reduced dues. They claimed that one way or another their dues enable a union to spend more money on lobbying causes and election campaigns that the teachers might oppose as individuals. It occurs to us that there just might be the same problem with attorney fees collected by federal sector unions. Here is how we reach that conclusion. Continue reading
EEOC UPHOLDS LANGUAGE DISCRIMINATION VIOLATION
When a private contractor being audited by the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) complained that he could not understand the federal employee auditing him, the management ordered the employee to communicate all messages through a supervisor. Apparently, the contractor had problems dealing not only with the employee’s accent, but also her written communications. EEOC had no problem, however, in ruling the agency had discriminated against the employee based on national origin. It ordered the agency to examine the damage done the employee, including emotional damage, and to pay her compensatory damages. They can be as high as $300,000 and attorney fee awards can be in the same financial range. The agency lost the case because it did not investigate the contractor’s complaint to see if the employee’s communications were unintelligible, nor did it offer any evidence that anyone else in the agency or that the employee dealt with complained. (See Gennie L. v. Ashton Carter, DOD, EEOC Appeal No. Appeal No. 0120122795 (2016)) EEOC’s position in language problem cases is that employer’s must have legitimate business reasons to base an employment decision on linguistic characteristics and those reasons must justify any burden placed on the employee.
A FEDERAL EMPLOYEE MAKES $6.4 MILLION
And this guy wants to lower federal employee pensions. Read for yourself from the N. Y. Times.
ANOTHER EEOC GUIDE
Just a few days ago we pointed you in the direction of the AFGE Guide to Fighting Discrimination as a great source for employees and their union reps embarking on an EEO charge. But we don’t want you to think there are no other great sources for the inexperienced layperson entering the EEOC maze. Here is another one we really like called EEO21.com.
CBP’S HAIL MARY PASS BLOWN DEAD
You needn’t have stayed on top of federal sector labor relations developments over the last decade to know that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is involved in a ton of litigation with the unions representing its employees, namely, AFGE and NTEU. Nor did you need high reading comprehension skills to pick up that the agency has lost almost every one of those fights before arbitrators and the FLRA. We have been wondering what the agency would do once it was out of appeal options and starring a few multi-million dollar back pay orders in the face, and we got our answer not long ago. Continue reading
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SELL-OUT UNIONISM
Assume for a minute that something like this message popped up in our mail last weekend: “My union won a huge arbitration case for a group of us whose career ladder promotions have been habitually delayed. I was supposed to get a back pay check for $40,000.00, but I just got notice that the union was settling on $.50 cents on the dollar. I am *^#@& angry that it gave away $20,000 of my money and probably another $60.00 a month in my retirement check. What can I do about it?” Obviously, the employee thinks his union sold her out, but what is the answer to her question? Continue reading
HOW SPECIFIC MUST GROUP GRIEVANCES BE?
Is the following a legitimate grievance: “Local X007 alleges on behalf of impacted employees that the agency violated the compensation rights of employees at various offices over the last six years and asks that those employees not only receive back pay with interest but that the agency also pay any attorney fee entitlements and change its compensation system to avoid similar errors in the future. Joey Baloney will represent the union and can be reached at JBaloney@erolz.com.” Continue reading
HOW TO CHANGE UNION AFFILIATION
On March 28, 1988, NAGE Local R14-146 was certified as the exclusive representative of a unit of health care employees at the U.S. Public Health Service, Indian Health Service Hospital, Shiprock, New Mexico, including employees who work at the Teecnospos Clinic in Arizona. There are approximately 332 members in the unit. On May 21, 1997, a notice to all Local R14-146 members was posted throughout the Northern Navajo Medical Health Center (Health Center) advising them of a special meeting. The notice stated that the purpose of the special meeting was to discuss and vote on changing the Local’s affiliation. Thereafter, the special meeting was held and the members who were in attendance voted unanimously (23-0) to change the unit’s affiliation from Local R14-146 to LIUNA. A petition to effect the change in certification from Local R14-146 to LIUNA was filed by its Chief Steward. Can the votes of just 23 people move a local from one union to another? Continue reading