Labor-management council delays reporting on bargaining expansion

The National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations will delay its deadline by 30 days to report to President Obama on how to implement pilot programs that would require agencies and unions to bargain over more issues.

"I think we have to admit that we don't have a strong proposal to take back to the president at this time," said John Berry, co-chairman of the council, during a meeting on Wednesday. "But we believe we're making serious progress and have a good faith proposal and the clear majority of the federal government coming to the table and saying we're willing to work on this issue."

The White House asked the council to report by May 8 on recommendations for implementing pilot programs to test bargaining over issues not normally subject to negotiation in the federal sector. These so-called (b)(1) bargaining issues include the number and qualifications of employees assigned to work on projects, technology involved and work methods, among other topics.

Berry, along with co-chairman Jeffrey Zients, Office of Management and Budget deputy director for management, recommended the council delay reporting to the president by 30 days and, in the meantime, form a work group to develop guidance on creating the pilot programs.

Berry said four of the five departments with the largest union representation have committed to working with the council on the bargaining pilots and their representatives will participate on the team.

"Now is the time to actively involve our union partners at the table to bring back to this council an approach forward on the pilot that we could undertake within the next 30 days," he said.

A number of union representatives, including National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley, Federal Education Association Executive Director H.T. Nguyen, and National Federation of Federal Employees President William Dougan, agreed to represent labor in the discussions.

At the meeting, the council also debated the findings of a work group tasked with providing guidance on establishing labor-management forums at various levels within agencies. The group outlined two models for agencies to use, avoiding a one-size-fits-all recommendation.

Under the first model, agencies would create a forum at the departmental level with unions that have consultation rights with them at that level. Additional forums could then be created at the component level for agencies with consultation rights within those agencies or offices.

According to the second model, where there are no unions with department-level recognition, agencies would create forums at lower levels, including any union with consultation rights within that smaller organization. Ad hoc labor-management work groups then would be established as needed to address departmentwide issues.

Veterans Affairs Department Deputy Secretary Scott Gould called the work group's recommendations a "very sensible final determination," but they would like to strengthen the language for some of the recommendations to clarify that the council encouraged certain actions, rather than just permit them.

Bill Bransford, general counsel for the Senior Executives Association, and Darryl Perkinson of the Federal Managers Association, expressed their desire to have managers associations included in these agency-level forums. Jane Holl Lute, Homeland Security deputy secretary, said it needs to be clear whether the managers associations' representatives are speaking as employees or as management.

"Management speaks for management," Lute said. "There can't be two management voices at the table."

Gould, a member of the work group, and the rest of the council agreed to review and fine-tune the language of the recommendations and represent them at the council's next meeting in June.