Posted on February 8, 2016 by AdminUN

I DON’T GET NO ADVANCE SICK LEAVE RESPECT

An employee asked for 88 hours of advance sick leave due to incapacitation and doctor appointments.  When the agency denied the request, she was given no reason for the decision.  When her representative looked into the matter he found that the employee’s supervisor had forwarded the request to the Assistant Special-Agent-in-Charge (ASAC) and received a hand-written note back denying the request—without any explanation.  When the employee’s rep dug deeper, he found that the ASAC said he merely relied on advice from LR who told him not to approve the request.  LR also made its decision without any recording any basis for it. When the agency tried to explain its actions, it stated that the denial was “due to issues concerning leave;” however, no one could find any record that the employee had been counseled about her leave usage or otherwise penalized. The agency obviously just expected the employee to talk her medicine and not ask any questions. But it got that wrong, too. Continue reading →

Posted in EEO/Discrimination | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on February 8, 2016 by AdminUN

MEDICAL PRIVACY QUIZ

An employee informs her manager that she will need some sick leave because of pending knee replacement surgery.  Her supervisor passes on that information on to her supervisors so that they are aware of a potential need to reassign the absent employee’s work.  Has the Americans With Disabilities Act or Rehabilitation Act been violated? Continue reading →

Posted in Disability, Medical Issues | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on February 8, 2016 by AdminUN

HOW TO WASTE, ABUSE AND MAYBE EVEN DEFRAUD UNION FUNDS

We are not talking about what everyone would consider outright theft, e.g., reimbursing a dummy company for fictional services and shipping the money to the Caymans. We are not even thinking about excesses that seem sleazy, e.g., the union president buying a Bentley rather than Ford Fusion as his union car or renting office space overlooking the ocean in the Florida Keys as the union’s “winter headquarters.”  Our focus here is on the type of things that a union president can get away with when the local leaders have a Madoff mindset? What is it?   Continue reading →

Posted in Union Administration | Tagged | 1 Comment

Posted on February 5, 2016 by AdminUN

CAN AGENCIES BAN RECORDING DEVICES IN THE WORKPLACE?

For generations employers had the unquestioned right to prohibit employees from using or even bringing recording devices into the job site—although employers could use them if they wished on or against employees. It was an easy rule to enforce because most recording equipment was so large and bulky it was easy to spot. But with the arrival of smart phones millions of folks have audio-video recording equipment that is almost undetectable short of a full body pat-down. Now, in addition to the breakdown in the ability to physically enforce the rule, employers may also be losing the legal right to ban employee use of such equipment. Continue reading →

Posted in Employee Rights, Union Rights | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on February 5, 2016 by AdminUN

IS THIS EMPLOYEE OWED $314,621.00, $95,186.00, OR $209,836.00?

We just ran across a wonderful example of how easy it is to determine the proper amount of attorney fees under current law and regulation. We are sending it along for all those readers that think the status quo is just fine. One lawyer looked at the facts of the federal employee’s case and concluded that the first figure above was the correct one, while another attorney calculated the second figure to be the proper one under legal standards. Given their disagreement, a team of lawyers reviewed the evidence and rendered a third decision that the final figure was correct. If a half-dozen attorneys who specialize in this area of the law cannot get within $100,000 or one another when assessing the same facts, it is time for LR practitioners to protect their employers—union or agency—by negotiating very specific contract articles that minimize the guess work on fees. If they can’t screw up the courage, then perhaps we should toss this to the folks on the Hill for a little of their influence. (Check out Complainant v. Jeh Johnson, DHS, TSA, EEOC Appeal No. 0720130035 (October 20, 2015))

Posted in Attorney Fees | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on February 1, 2016 by AdminUN

EEO RETALIATION QUIZ

In which of the following situations will EEOC argue that the employee has been the victim of illegal retaliation under the Civil Rights laws? (1) An EEO Specialist was reprimanded for telling her manager that she thought the office did not fight national origin discrimination hard enough; (2) A manager told an employee to never again go outside the chain of command to complain about what he perceived as sexual harassment of women elsewhere in the office; and (3) An employee witness in an EEO complaint said she “Agreed” that her manager was fair to all minorities, but said she could not say, Strongly Agree,” and when her manager found out he expressed his regret that she did not support him more forcefully. For the answers, check out the post from EMPLOYMENT & LABOR INSIDER entitled, “EEOC Retaliation Guidance, Part 1: You Gotta Be “Protected”! EEOC is taking a very broad view of what constitutes retaliation.

Posted in Retaliation | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on February 1, 2016 by AdminUN

UNIONS NEED AGENCY HELP ON ATTORNEY FEES

There are more and more signs that employee attorneys, including union attorneys, are getting greedy on attorney fees.  Not long ago we posted a story entitled, “The $796.00 Per Hour Federal Job” to share that the Dept. of Justice now considers it acceptable for attorneys with over 20 years of experience to charge that per hour, including those representing federal employees in adverse actions and grievances. We think it is time that union attorneys who are paid annual salaries from members’ dues do something to avoid handing Senator Grassley, Congressman Issa, or even the Rush Limbaughs of the world a big, multi-spiked, poison-tipped club to beat federal unions into giving up any fee entitlement via an obscure midnight rider on some bill about Inter-Galactic, Trans-Genus, Penguin Husbandry or other totally unrelated piece of legislation.  Because unions are understandably reluctant to solve a problem most do not think they have, agencies should be leading the reform effort.  After all the agencies paying outlandish hourly rate fees also will be dragged through the mud in the process which means they need to do something to protect their own flanks.  Here is how agencies could protect themselves at the bargaining table—and patch a few gaping holes in the Attorney Fee statute. Continue reading →

Posted in Attorney Fees | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on January 30, 2016 by AdminUN

WE COULD NOT AGREE MORE

A whole new area of HR/ER/LR knowledge is opening up that creates the potential for union leaders to fall even farther behind the expertise curve. Once managers get up to speed with it, do not be surprised to see them swat away union bargaining proposals like one-wing flies. Unions will be at the table arguing for contract changes based on logic and a few examples of why they are needed. Managers will sit back, take it all in, smile smugly, and when the union concludes its presentation unleash a torrent of spreadsheet data and statistics washing the union demands far out to sea, over the horizon and lost forever. If your union’s negotiators and trainers are not already taking steps to understand and dive into the world of HR Analytics, toss them some overtime and tell them to catch up. A fellow blogger posted a story we could not agree with more. It’s entitled, “HR Intel – The Age of HR Analytics is Upon Us.” HR may not yet be “rocket surgery,” but it is more and more about data, numbers, correlations, etc. [See also “People Analytics- Where HR Meets Science at Google.”]

Posted in Bargaining Proposals | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on January 25, 2016 by AdminUN

WHEN HAIR TRUMPS URINE

An agency suspended a firefighter for 30 days who tested positive for illegal drugs after being selected in a random test. Because the employee was absolutely convinced that he had not used drugs, he tried to prove that the urine sample produced a false positive and/or that his sample had become mixed up with another employee’s. Consequently, along with his written reply he provided the result of a private test he had done of his hair that showed he had not used drugs at any recent time. He also asked the agency for a portion of the urine it tested so that he could have a private DNA test run on it. The agency refused to release any of the urine citing HHS rules that prohibit DNA testing on urine samples collected for drug testing. So, that left it up to the judge and MSPB itself to decide what to do. Continue reading →

Posted in Discipline/Adverse Action | Tagged | Leave a comment

Posted on January 25, 2016 by AdminUN

MEASURING THE QUALITY OF A UNION

We have always thought that you can measure the quality of a union by how quickly it moves a member’s grievance to and through arbitration for a final decision. After all, for every member left to deal with the uncertainty, anxiety, and/or stress of waiting for a final decision, there is a local union leader who probably assured the grieving member that his/her union would do everything it could to help. That union leader looks foolish as weeks and then months turn into more than a year awaiting a final decision. That is why we we’re a little sorry to see the Federal Circuit Court’s new decision letting a union off the hook for delaying a case. Here are the facts. Continue reading →

Posted in Arbitration | Tagged | Leave a comment