Workforce

IRS announces the end of most surprise taxpayer visits

The change, effective immediately, comes due to concern for the safety of IRS employees and to make it easier for taxpayers to identify potential scammers.

Workforce

New union contract offers hope for better labor relations at the Social Security Administration

The American Federation of Government Employees and Social Security management will meet on a bimonthly basis to collaborate on issues like improving training, designing a child care subsidy and more.

Workforce

Want successful integration of AI at federal agencies? Engage employees through the unions

COMMENTARY | AI will bring dramatic, disruptive, productive changes that can improve how the work of government is carried out over the next 10 years. To prepare for it, organizations will need to learn together and plan together.

Oversight

‘Wrongdoing’ likely in USDA maintenance of the nation’s largest agricultural research facility, OSC says

Union leaders said a recent winter flood of a building at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center is just a symptom of systematic mismanagement of the facility.

Management

FLRA will test out paperless document delivery

The agency that oversees labor-management relations in the federal government says sending documents by mail sometimes hamstrings parties’ ability to respond to filings.

Workforce

Social Security’s staffing crisis is getting dire, union says

Agency management is doing “the bare minimum” to improve workplace conditions amid a daunting workload and morale that is among the worst in the federal government, union officials argue.

Management

A union is still pushing to permanently end the threat of delayed paychecks due to a debt default

The Biden administration will soon have to articulate its views on the constitutionality of the debt ceiling.

Workforce

Federal Employee Unions Endorse Biden for Reelection

Labor leaders described President Biden as “the most labor-friendly president in history.”

Pay & Benefits

Conservatives: End Annual Across-the-Board Pay Raises for Feds and Cut Benefits

The Republican Study Committee’s fiscal 2024 budget proposal would favor targeted “merit-based” pay increases and drastically reduce federal employees’ retirement and health care benefits.

Workforce

No Telework Cuts for Weather Service Employees, Under Union Settlement

Commerce Department employees represented by the National Weather Service Employees Organization are exempt from recent cuts to telework, though labor leaders bemoan deteriorating relationship with management.

Workforce

FLRA Could Be Back to Full Strength With Latest Nomination

After six months of operating with an even partisan split, President Biden announced he would nominate a top Defense Department official for the final post at the FLRA.

Workforce

Labor Authority's General Counsel Post Could Finally Be Filled with a New Nominee

The position, which is required for unfair labor practice complaints to advance to the Federal Labor Relations Authority for adjudication, has lacked a Senate-confirmed appointee since 2017.

Workforce

NIH Fellows Hope Union Bid Will Bolster Pay and Protections

Organizers hope that forming a union at the National Institutes of Health will help increase pay, benefits and worker protections across academia.

Workforce

An Effort to Make It Easier for Feds to Bust Their Own Union is Blocked by the FLRA

The American Federation of Government Employees applauded the decision, but with a FLRA-mandated union election scheduled for next month, the fight is far from over.

Workforce

Federal Labor Law Applies to Civilian Technicians in State National Guards, Supreme Court Affirms

The state of Ohio had argued it did not fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, despite the fact that “dual status technicians” are federal employees.

Workforce

Union and Alaska Army Posts Resolve Differences Over Official Time and Illegal Contract, But Other Fights Remain

Despite agreeing to drop the illegal contract the agency unilaterally imposed on AFGE employees in 2019, union officials say management continues to resist the Biden administration’s pro-labor policies.

Oversight

Republicans Remind the White House They Still Want to Know More About Biden’s Labor Policies for Contractors

President Biden issued an executive order last year requiring project labor agreements for federal construction work. 

Workforce

Conservative Think Tanks Are Preparing a List of 20K Potential Political Appointees in Hopes of Reviving Schedule F

A coalition led by the Heritage Foundation has launched a massive recruitment effort that would grow the ranks of federal political appointees from 4,000 to 20,000 in the next Republican presidential administration.

Management

Agencies Would Suffer 'Egregious Harm' Under GOP Debt Ceiling Proposal, Federal Employee Union Says

House Republicans’ plan to raise the debt ceiling in conjunction with a 20% cut in discretionary spending would hurt public services, AFGE says.

Workforce

The Biden Administration Tells Agencies to Scale Back Telework

Federal employee unions and career agency HR leaders reportedly were left out of the development of a new Office of Management and Budget memo that instructs agencies to “substantially increase meaningful in-person work at federal offices.”