Workforce

Employees ratify TSA’s first union contract since rights expansion

The American Federation of Government Employees’ new collective bargaining agreement streamlines grievance and arbitration rules and greatly expands work-life balance policies like shift trading.

Workforce

Biden order expands federal apprenticeships, reestablishes labor-management forums

Federal employee unions say the new order provides much-needed teeth to the president’s existing labor policies.

Workforce

DOJ issues 'gag order' on immigration judges

Biden administration says the union representing the judges can no longer speak publicly without agency sign off.

Workforce

FLRA: CBP owes backpay to officers denied nightwork premium pay

The chairwoman of the body that oversees federal sector labor issues also expressed an openness to revisiting the legal definition of repudiating a union contract.

Management

Amid budget squeeze, FLRA panel regs encourage electronic documents filing

Less physical paper taken in by the board that settles bargaining-table disputes between unions and agencies will help streamline workloads as its parent agency reduces its office footprint due to budget woes.

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.

Workforce

O’Malley reduces telework for Social Security HQ, regional office staff

The new commissioner outlined a plan to create “core collaboration days” for members of management, while most frontline workers are seemingly spared from the cuts.

Pay & Benefits

Feds get 7.4% pay raise under congressional Democrats' plan

Despite two years of federal employees receiving the highest pay increases in decades, the Federal Adjustment of Income Rates Act’s sponsors say the federal workforce continues to suffer from “chronic underinvestment.”

Management

Senate panel advances watchdog, labor nominees

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee favorably reported four nominees for adjudicative agencies recently hamstrung by vacancy-related case backlogs to the Senate floor for final consideration.

Workforce

Biden nominates OSC deputy to join FLRA

Biden’s previous choice to fill the last spot on the Federal Labor Relations Authority quietly withdrew from consideration last fall.

Pay & Benefits

Union decries end to retention pay at embattled Illinois prison

Labor leaders at Federal Correctional Institute Thomson said the Bureau of Prisons’ termination of a short-lived initiative to retain employees at the rural facility with a 25% boost to pay will cause hundreds to leave the agency.

Pay & Benefits

New OPM proposal would ensure feds detailed to temporary promotions are paid properly

Federal HR leaders said in a filing last week that a rule capping increased pay for federal workers noncompetitively selected to perform duties of a higher-graded position at 120 days penalizes employees for their agency’s mistake.

Oversight

Conservatives bemoan disappearance of OPM official time docs

Officials at the federal government’s HR agency said a webpage housing sporadic reports on agencies’ official time use did not survive a recent website redesign, but suggested tweaks are ongoing.

Management

Martin O’Malley confirmed as Social Security commissioner

The Senate voted 50-11 Monday to confirm the former Maryland governor, officially ending a multi-year period where the agency struggled under acting leadership.

Workforce

Workers at German military installation unionize amid AFGE's overseas push

Nearly 400 employees of a community center on Ramstein Air Base voted to form the American Federation of Government Employee’s second union local in Europe.

Workforce

Bipartisan bill would let VA medical employees grieve compensation mistakes

Unlike most federal workers, medical professionals at the Veterans Affairs Department are unable to negotiate over compensation adjustments like payroll errors.

Management

O’Malley’s bid to lead Social Security moves forward

The Senate Finance Committee voted Tuesday to advance O’Malley’s nomination to lead the Social Security Administration to the Senate floor for final consideration.

Pay & Benefits

The federal pay gap spiked again in 2023

Members of an advisory panel that examines federal employee compensation issues on Tuesday recommended advocating new tactics to combat the federal-private sector pay disparity as well as pay compression.

Workforce

‘I want to work myself out of a job’: How two FLRA officials are responsible for resolving hundreds of labor-management disputes

The Federal Labor Relations Authority’s Collaboration and Alternative Dispute Resolution Office makes a big impact, despite a tiny organizational chart.

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.”