Workforce
The MacGuffin of Schedule F
COMMENTARY | Plans to convert federal workers in policy-related positions into at-will employees leave the workforce dangling.
Oversight
MSPB political firing case raises new questions on Schedule F
The Housing and Urban Development Department’s 2017 firing of a probationary employee over alleged leaks was politically motivated, the agency tasked with enforcing civil service laws said last week.
Workforce
Politicians may rail against the ‘deep state,’ but research shows federal workers are effective and committed, not subversive
COMMENTARY | "Our years of research about the people who work in the federal government finds that they care deeply about their work, aiding the public and pursuing the stability and integrity of government," write two scholars.
Workforce
One agency’s Trump-era plan included stripping protections from 68% of its workforce
The Office of Management and Budget appeared to have taken a maximalist approach to the controversial job category, proposing to strip the civil service protections from IT workers, recruiters and even executive assistants.
Workforce
Trump’s civil service plans unsettle labor leaders at start of campaign season
Lawmakers and leaders of the American Federation of Government Employees warned that the former president represents a “threat to democracy” at the union’s annual legislative conference.
Management
That Time Abraham Lincoln went to a war zone to escape office-seekers
The front lines of the Civil War were a vacation compared to being literally stalked in Washington.
Pay & Benefits
Keeping an eye on Schedule F and other proposals to reform federal workforce and pay protections
COMMENTARY | Former President Trump's plan to convert large swaths of federal employees into "at-will" workers may be on ice for now, but he and other GOP contenders have proposed to revive the proposal or institute a more drastic one.
Workforce
Union coalition throws support behind OPM’s anti-Schedule F rules
A group of 14 labor organizations led by the National Treasury Employees Union urged the federal government’s HR agency to adopt its proposal to hamstring future efforts to strip feds’ job protections “promptly.”
Management
Will an attack on federal employees swing the election? Probably no
COMMENTARY | A closer look at what a recent series of focus groups revealed.
Workforce
‘Neutral competence,’ partisanship and efforts to overhaul the civil service
COMMENTARY | One scholar argues that a radical movement to shift powers to the president would be disastrous for the federal workforce.
Workforce
Regulations aimed at derailing a Schedule F revival proposed by OPM
An effort to insulate the federal workforce from future efforts to strip them of their removal protections could accelerate an “existential” debate over the nonpartisan civil service system, experts said.
Workforce
Deconstructing the administrative state: At what cost?
COMMENTARY | Americans should be frightened by the prospect of a return to the spoils system, argue two scholars.
Workforce
Retiring NTEU president reflects on three decades in organized labor
Tony Reardon on Thursday handed the reins of the National Treasury Employees Union to newly elected national president Doreen Greenwald.
Workforce
What the United States can learn from Australia’s recent catastrophic failure to listen to career government experts
COMMENTARY | A hastily launched 2016 program to reduce overpayment of government benefits was plagued by “unfairness, probable illegality and cruelty,” an Australian commission later found.
Workforce
Sen. Kaine revives effort to ban Schedule F through the defense policy bill
This marks the second straight year that the Virginia Democrat has sought to attach a measure requiring congressional approval for new federal job classifications to the National Defense Authorization Act.
Workforce
Schedule F architects say the plan’s critics are ‘hyperbolic’
Officials behind the Trump administration’s abortive effort to strip tens of thousands of federal workers in policy positions of their civil service protections called concerns of politicization overblown, but espoused making all federal employees at-will.
Workforce
Feds Could Be Fired at Any Time for Any Reason, Under a Bill That Was Just Reintroduced
The bill also would abolish the Merit Systems Protection Board and threatens to reduce former federal employees’ retirement benefits if they file “frivolous” appeals of adverse personnel actions.
Workforce
There Are Many Threats to 'the Future of the Public Service Itself'
Donald F. Kettl joins the podcast to discuss the future of the civil service.
Management
The Gathering Storm Threatening the Civil Service
Conservatives are gearing up for a big debate and attacks that could upend the civil service as we know it.
Management