Management

House Democrat Calls on Labor Authority to Overturn 'Radical' Changes to Legal Precedent

The Federal Labor Relations Authority in recent months has issued several controversial decisions that have sharply shifted the balance of power in labor-management relationships toward agencies.

Management

VA Asks for Broader Definition of Management in What Union Fears Is an Effort to Purge Members

Union officials said they fear the department’s request to the Federal Labor Relations Authority, combined with President Trump’s controversial Schedule F executive order, could amount to a last-minute effort to strip federal workers of collective bargaining rights.

Management

Major Federal Employee Union Urges Biden to Restore Collaborative Labor Relations

NTEU publishes recommendations for the presidential transition, encouraging an end to President Trump’s antagonism of unions.

Management

Federal Panel Strips VA Worker Rights in Latest Pro-Management Decision

Although the Federal Service Impasses Panel scolded VA for its overbroad reliance on management rights to eviscerate its contract with a labor union, the panel still ruled mostly in the department’s favor.

Management

Rolling Back Trump Workforce Policies Won’t Be As Simple As Rescinding Executive Orders

President-elect Biden has vowed to rescind on his first day a series of Trump-era directives aimed at weakening federal labor unions and politicizing the civil service, but repairing the damage could take much longer.

Management

Union: Social Security Biased Against Minorities in Performance Ratings

Although more than half of SSA’s frontline workers are minorities, they have accounted for less than 40% of top performance ratings doled out by the agency in recent years.

Management

FLRA Overturns Its Own Regional Director, Busts Immigration Judges’ Union

The lone Democrat on the board of the agency tasked with administering federal labor law accused his colleagues of “sophistry” and “facetious” reasoning to strip more than 450 federal employees of their collective bargaining rights.

Management

Coalition of 28 Labor Groups Urges Congress to Block Trump Order Creating Schedule F

Federal Worker Alliance sends a letter to Democratic appropriators urging them to include language in the next round of spending legislation to rescind President Trump’s executive order.

Management

‘Stunning’ Executive Order Would Politicize Civil Service

President Trump signs directive that would potentially pull thousands of federal employees in "policy-making" positions out of the competitive service, making them at-will employees.

Management

Impasses Panel, Union Debate Appellate Court Decision’s Impact on Appointments Challenge

Government attorneys cited a recent D.C. Circuit Court decision in support of the argument that appointees to the Federal Service Impasses Panel should not require Senate confirmation.

Management

OPM Finalizes Rule on Trump Executive Order to Ease Firing and Discipline of Feds

Regulations set to go into effect next month will implement several key provisions of President Trump’s executive order.

Management

White VA Employees Twice as Likely to Be Promoted as Black Workers

The American Federation of Government Employees said Thursday that new data it obtained via the Freedom of Information Act underscores its allegations of systemic racism pervading the Veterans Affairs Department.

Pay & Benefits

OPM Seeks to Limit Back Pay Awards for Employees, Unions

Officials at the Office of Personnel Management want to upend a nearly 40-year-old set of regulations, restricting which actions are subject to grievances under the Back Pay Act, and banning unions from being awarded attorney's fees when their members win their cases.

Management

Civil Rights Groups Pressure VA Ahead of GAO Racism Audit

GAO has agreed to investigate the prevalence racism at the Veterans Affairs Department after a survey revealed that the vast majority of bargaining unit employees had either experienced or witnessed acts of discrimination on the job.

Pay & Benefits

GovExec Daily: The State of the Payroll Tax Deferral

Erich Wagner joins the podcast to discuss the latest pay and benefits news.

Pay & Benefits

Lawmakers Revive Push to Make Feds’ Payroll Tax Deferral Optional

The effort to pressure the Trump administration into allowing federal employees to opt out of the controversial initiative to delay collection of Social Security taxes until next year is now bipartisan.

Management

Labor Authority Abandons Decades of Precedent, Eviscerates Union Bargaining Rights

Across multiple decisions on Wednesday, the agency that governs federal sector labor law removed unions’ right to midterm bargaining and made it harder for unions to demand agencies bargain over changes to working conditions.

Pay & Benefits

More Feds Subject to Mandatory Payroll Tax Deferral Than Initially Thought

The National Treasury Employees Union on Friday said that the Trump administration failed to clarify that the controversial initiative applies to those making $4,000 or less after several pre-tax deductions, not their gross pay.

Management

Unions Dispute Government’s Latest Effort to Dismiss Impasse Panel Challenges

The Trump administration on Tuesday cited a federal appellate court decision affirming that claims against the president’s workforce executive orders must go through an administrative process to support dismissing lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of Federal Service Impasses Panel appointments, but unions say the cases are unrelated.

Management

Arbitrator Finds Trump Workforce Orders Violate Law

An independent arbitrator ruled that the president cannot reduce the scope of bargaining between an agency and a labor group “by fiat.”