Posted on August 25, 2015 by AdminUN

WHERE DO NATIONAL UNION PRESIDENTS COME FROM?

That is a more interesting question than you might think—and worthy of some thought given how important leadership can be. Some unions, like NWSEO and NLRBU demand that a member be an active federal employee to be their National President, while others, such as NTEU, do not require that their top leader ever spend a moment in the shoes of a federal employee–and gives them much lower dues rates if they join and run. Here is a quick overview of the requirements for running each of the unions. Continue reading →

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Posted on August 24, 2015 by AdminUN

THE REMEDY IN 5 USC 6101 CASES

As of August 17th, five of the last six FLRA decisions involved NTEU cases, including yet another one dealing with how work hours are set under 5 USC 6101 and 5 CFR 610. While FLRA has over 100 decisions involving the operation of 5 USC 6101 and its companion, the NTEU-Customs and Border Security cases involve the largest potential remedy of all of them—by far. A fair guess is that it will work out to a hefty nine-figure amount due to back pay obligations reaching back to the turn of this century. Of course, all that changes if the agency can find the silver bullet defense argument that defeats the union’s back pay claim—assuming there is one. CBP has not uncovered it yet in any of the more than half-dozen cases it has litigated with NTEU around the issues. It appears to have only one procedural option left, which is an extreme long-shot without the silver bullet defense. Stay tuned as this case unfolds. Perhaps the parties will settle for dimes on the dollar or CBP will start offering reward money for the winning argument that saves it hundreds of millions. P.S. Continue reading →

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Posted on August 24, 2015 by AdminUN

COX OVERWHELMS AFGE, CONGRATS

Back in 2012 David Cox won the AFGE National Presidency in a squeaker with 51% of the vote, but a short three years later he roared back into the job last week with 63% of the vote. Given AFGE’s tradition of deciding winners by razor thin margins, it is worth looking at how Cox got such an historically wide support so quickly. Continue reading →

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Posted on August 20, 2015 by AdminUN

SEQUESTRATION AND RIF

With the curtains about to roll back on the annual budget theatrics for us, it is time to think about what role labor law plays in it. The most dreaded response to a budget shortfall from any agency will be a RIF. In all likelihood, no one on either side of that table wants to do that, but those on the agency side will be working against some deadlines to get folks off the rolls. Standing in their way of meeting those deadlines could be one very powerful part of the labor laws, as AFGE demonstrated not long ago. Continue reading →

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Posted on August 20, 2015 by AdminUN

WHEN IS AN EMPLOYEE “PLAINLY SUPERIOR” TO THE SELECTEE IN A PROMOTION ACTION?

This may come as a shock to lots of folks on the management side of the table, but a promotion applicant is not the best person for the job just because the ranking and selecting officials say so. If the agency does a sloppy job of selecting an employee and the employee/union challenge the selection, it can mean a big bundle of back pay, an even bigger attorney fees award, a bigger-than-both-of-them-combined compensatory damages award, and an order that the managers involved with the selection be disciplined. The prohibition against filing a grievance to challenge a properly ranked and rated promotion certificate does not apply if the employee alleges discrimination and invokes the “plainly superior” doctrine. Given how easy it is for an employee to meet his/her initial burden of proof, we are very surprised that there are not more of these cases. Continue reading →

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Posted on August 12, 2015 by AdminUN

EXTREME ULP REMEDIES

The NLRB recently issued a decision clobbering an employer with penalties for its repeated and substantial violations of the labor law. Take a look at this blog post about it for a quick overview of the decision. This is something a union might want to show FLRA or an arbitrator the next time it is litigating a very serious ULP matter. If you sit on the other side of the table, this is just one more indication that the potential remedy for persistent illegal activity might be something far worse than a simple 6 months slap-on-the-wrist posting.

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Posted on August 11, 2015 by AdminUN

WHAT NEXT AT CBP?

If you have been watching the cases coming out of FLRA the last year or so, you probably noticed that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) continues to lose a lot of back pay cases to NTEU. Moreover, they are big cases worked out of the union’s national Negotiations department as class action grievances involving thousands of employees. Given that CBP decided to exhaust every avenue of appeal, including asking for reconsiderations when it loses initially at FLRA, some of the back pay claims go back to the last century. It is a good bet that the total amount due employees is measured in the hundreds of millions. And from what we can see, the time has come for CBP to pay—or refuse to comply with the law despite being a law enforcement agency. For example, Continue reading →

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Posted on August 11, 2015 by AdminUN

NTEU ELECTS REARDON NATIONAL PRESIDENT

NTEU convention delegates elected Tony Reardon today to be the next National President of NTEU, giving him more than 85% of the vote. For the past decade or so Tony has managed the union’s finances, accounting, real estate, information technology, meeting management, investments, human resources, payroll, and capital acquisitions. He does not have the background in representational matters that some other staff and chapter leaders do, but that just might be what helps NTEU turn around some troubling internal trends in membership, bargaining clout, political involvement, and even representation. Continue reading →

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Posted on August 11, 2015 by AdminUN

10 BARGAINING ISSUES AROUND PHASED RETIREMENT

Now that OPM has finally issued regulations to implement the phased retirement program (PRP), it is time for unions to prepare bargaining demands. Here are some that would be on our list. Continue reading →

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Posted on August 9, 2015 by AdminUN

UNION LEADERSHIP

The Dean of the Duke University School of Business is getting some publicity today for what he said about leadership. A reporter asked him about teaching leadership and the Dean responded, “The classic model of leadership is to find the smartest person in the room and have that person tell everyone what to do. That is not the kind of leadership that produces the innovation the world needs. The kind of leader who succeeds today is the leader who can bring people together and make great things happen through collaboration.” We could not agree more, but he missed a critical ingredient. Continue reading →

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