Oversight

Although USDA Agencies that Relocated to Kansas City Have Recovered from Staff Exoduses, Their Diversity Hasn’t

The Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service and National Institutes of Food and Agriculture shed more than half their workforces following their relocation from Washington to Kansas City.

Workforce

State of the Unions: A New Normal

After nearly four years of drag-out fights with the Trump administration, President Biden pitched himself as a willing partner to federal employee unions. How have the government and unions navigated the transition to this new approach?

Pay & Benefits

OPM Should Do More to Prevent Improper FEHBP Payments

The Government Accountability Office on Monday reported that OPM has no fulsome way to monitor the eligibility of participants in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program.

Workforce

Supreme Court Justices Seem Skeptical of State Challenge of FLRA’s Jurisdiction Over National Guard Civilians

“Is Ohio just crazy” for repudiating collective bargaining obligations with civilian technicians of the Ohio National Guard, asked one conservative jurist.

Workforce

The Federal Labor Relations Authority Is Now Ideologically Deadlocked After Its Chairman’s Term Expired

President Biden designated Susan Tsui Grundmann to be chairwoman of the agency after Ernest DuBester reached the end of his term, although the president could reappoint the longtime FLRA member.

Workforce

Year of the Living Dead: How Schedule F Continued to Threaten to Upend the Civil Service in 2022

The Trump administration’s abortive effort to strip thousands of federal workers of their civil service protections continues to cast its shadow on government.

Pay & Benefits

Biden Has Issued an Executive Order Finalizing an Average 4.6% Pay Raise for Feds

The move locks in the largest pay increase for federal employees in two decades, although in a year with record inflation, it still fell short of some employee groups’ hopes.

Workforce

FLRA Moves to Undo a Controversial Trump-era Union Dues Policy

The Federal Labor Relations Authority, now under Democratic control, said prior leadership ignored the Civil Service Reform Act’s legislative history.

Pay & Benefits

The President’s Pay Agent Has Approved Four New Locality Pay Areas

The annual report from the leaders of OMB, OPM and the Labor Department also authorized a number of tweaks to the criteria that govern which regions are eligible to be added to the map of locality pay areas.

Management

House Democrats Look to Bolster the Biden Administration’s Equity Push

A pair of bills would establish a series of councils focused on breaking down racial equity barriers to federal service delivery and would require agencies to set goals upon which to measure their progress.

Workforce

The House Passes a Bill to Give VA Medical Employees Greater Union Rights

The VA Employee Fairness Act would grant medical professionals the right to bargain over scheduling and official time, and to file grievances over pay disputes.

Management

Recent Hiring Reforms Are Already Working, Federal HR Leaders Say

At the annual public meeting of the Chief Human Capital Officers Council, officials said innovations like shared certifications and skills-based hiring are paying dividends.

Workforce

FLRA Restores Pre-Trump Doctrine on When It Can Intervene in Ongoing Arbitration

A decision by the then-Republican controlled FLRA in 2018 led to a tripling of some cases on the agency’s docket.

Management

OPM to Agencies: Set Up ‘Success Metrics’ to Show How You're Building Stronger Workforces

The federal government’s HR agency is taking a data-driven approach to advancing the workforce portions of the Biden administration’s management agenda.

Pay & Benefits

OPM Will Suspend Long Term Care Insurance Applications as a Sizeable Premium Increase Looms

The deadline to apply for the program before a two-year suspension is Dec. 19, but officials want applicants to go in with “eyes wide open” that rates will likely increase substantially.

Workforce

A Union and the EEOC Have Reached a Settlement Over the Agency’s Failure to Negotiate Office Reentry

The deal requires health and safety inspections of all EEOC work sites, reduces the number of days employees must report to their offices to three per pay period, and opens the door to negotiating a remote work policy for employees.

Workforce

These Are the Agencies that Saw the Biggest Losses in Employee Satisfaction in 2022, and the Few that Saw Gains

Only 10 agencies with at least 100 employees saw improvements to their job satisfaction score in the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, and no agencies with at least 10,000 workers gained ground.