Even a quick check of AFGE’s current national newsletter will give you an idea of how proud and happy the union is to have achieved an on-going level of 300,000 dues paying members. While all but one of the more recognizable federal employee unions reported a membership increase to DOL for 2014, AFGE has become the indisputable long-term pacesetter for union membership growth. We intermittently have touched on why it has thrived when other unions are shrinking or at least just growing incrementally. But it might help others if we pulled from our individual posts to create a reasonably thorough, ten-item list of how AFGE did it.
Most of the story begins around the year 2000 when the leader of a large council of social security locals upset the in-house favorite to become National President. Here is what happened soon after that. Continue reading
Whistleblowing laws have changed a lot in the last few years and most of the change has been good for employees. Union reps should make sure they can spot the situations where employees qualify for whistleblower rights. We are going to spend more time on the concept over the next few weeks, but the Office of the Special Counsel has put out a good video explaining the basics of this area of employee rights.
Let’s assume that a union filed a timely institutional grievance on May 1, 2014 claiming that its members had been denied full travel mileage reimbursement as required by the agreement and agency regs. Moreover, it claims that this has been going on for at least six years and asks that the agency or arbitrator award six years of retroactive travel allowances as a remedy. Must the arbitrator award six years of reimbursement if she finds the agency violated contract and regulation? Continue reading
Score another one for all the Sunday church-going Christians in their battle to spend their Sabbath worshiping. This time DOD learned the hard way that it must offer a “reasonable accommodation” to allow employees to practice their religion and when they do not they can pay dearly. In this case more than $25,000 in damages. Continue reading
Tucked away in a little visited part of the labor law (5 USC 7120(c)) is an obligation that unions with exclusive recognition over federal employees must file annual financial reports with the IRS and Department of Labor. Unfortunately, a small number of unions fail to do so each year and some even chronically fail year after year. National unions have the power under law to step in and take control of locals that fail to comply, but few seem to have the internal political courage to correct these infractions before they embarrass the larger union. In fact, it seems to us that this is not going to get fixed until agencies other than IRS and DOL do what they can to enforce the law. Continue reading
The Department of Labor recently decided a case that reminds practitioners of an overworked employee’s right to collect workers compensation. In August 2013 an employee filed an occupational disease claim alleging that he sustained a stress-related emotional condition in the performance of duty as an Administrative Assistant. He pointed to his depression and social withdrawal, his worsening pelvic floor dysfunction, the onset of neuropathy in his hands, feet and lower extremities, his weight gain of over 80 pounds, his worsening insomnia and sleep apnea, and the onset of several skin conditions. The core of his claim was based on being assigned the work of three other Administrative Assistants who left the office between October 2012 and February 2013. Here is what DOL said when it overturned the initial dismissal of his case—and what is important to practitioners who want to help employees make similar claims. Continue reading
Joe Hill is an American labor movement legend whose stories and songs contributed heavily to the growth of unions in the early part of the last century. Because only die-hard unionists may know who he was and the role he played, the NY Daily News just wrote a short story about him that others might want to look through—if only to see the connection to The Boss. If about the American worker intrigue you, here is a recording of the top then of all time.
With national politics heating up, we thought you might enjoy a story out of the Washington Post. It does a good job of explaining the different factions with America’s labor unions and why they often favor opposing candidates in the same political party.
The Center for WorkLife Law and the University of California (Hastings) has just made life a little easier for those of us practitioners who have pregnant employees or members. Their web site pulls together lots of useful information, e.g., case law decisions, advice guides, etc. and organizes it separately for those working for HR and those representing the employee. We recommend you check it out. Don’t be fooled into thinking that everyone knows their rights and obligations. Perhaps you noticed an EEOC posting recently announcing a $200,000 settlement for a small group of pregnant law enforcement officer working on the bridges of New York who were required to surrender their weapons and collect tolls once they announced they were pregnant-despite their MD’s assurances that they were capable of doing police work on the bridges.