Posts tagged DOJ
Federal lawsuit alleges discrimination against Vietnamese women nail techs
June 3, 2025 // Licensed barbers, cosmetologists, estheticians and electrologists can still work as independent contractors under state labor law without being subjected to a rigorous test. But exemptions under Assembly Bill 5 expired this year for manicurists. The change has left manicurists and nail salon owners alike confused as to whether non-employees can continue renting booths for their businesses — a decades-long industry practice.
Court gives go-ahead to Trump’s plan to halt union bargaining for many federal workers
May 19, 2025 // Trump relied on a national security exemption to exempt agencies that he said "have as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work." "Preserving the President's autonomy under a statute that expressly recognizes his national-security expertise is within the public interest," the appeal's court majority wrote.
FRANK RICCI: Fire Fighters’ Union Betraying Its Members
May 13, 2025 // Such dealings include collecting millions from muscular dystrophy charities—funds many members thought were going to sick kids stricken with a debilitating disease. Instead, these yearly collected funds from the “Fill the Boot Campaign” were funneled back from the charity to the union’s coffers. The practice was curtailed only after eliciting member outrage when it was finally exposed. The federal court’s recent ruling to deny the IAFF-FC’s motions to dismiss validates the seriousness of Hughes’ claims, allowing the case to proceed and exposing the union’s alleged misconduct to greater scrutiny.
GOP senators demand swift action against Biden-era ATF bureaucrats who allegedly ‘defrauded taxpayers’ of $20M — and still work for federal govt.
May 13, 2025 // “The OPM audit report found that experienced, rank and file ATF HR employees were passed over for career advancements and promotions because ATF assigned unqualified, inexperienced special agents to these leadership roles within [the ATF Office of Human Resources and Professional Development] and paid them more for doing similar work,” the senators wrote. They also noted that the scheme cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
Unions, cities, nonprofits sue to block Trump workforce cuts
May 1, 2025 // Musk has tempered his original goal for DOGE to slash $1 trillion from government spending, saying this month it was on track to cut $150 billion this year. The Trump administration has faced more than 200 lawsuits challenging its policies, with a significant number calling the president's directives unconstitutional. The case is American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO et al v Trump et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 25-03698.
Backgrounder: Trump Civil Service Reform Proposed Rule
April 27, 2025 // On April 23, 2025, OPM proposed a new rule to improve accountability for federal career employees, especially those in policy roles. The rule implements President Trump’s Executive Order 14171, which he signed on his first day in office. Executive Order 14171 explicitly directed OPM to render civil service regulations implemented during the Biden administration inoperative, citing the President’s authority to manage the executive branch. Among other things, the rule would create a new job category called Schedule Policy/Career in the excepted service for policy-influencing positions, making them at-will employees and, therefore, meaningfully accountable for their performance and conduct.
OPM proposes rule to formally revive Schedule F
April 22, 2025 // The Office of Personnel Management on Friday filed proposed regulations that would formally revive Schedule F, setting the stage for tens of thousands of federal workers to be stripped of their civil service protections, making them effectively at-will employees. The proposal, which will be published in the Federal Register on April 23, outlines the new excepted service category, now called Schedule Policy/Career, purports to remove “cumbersome adverse action procedures” for employees in what the administration deems to be policy-related jobs and accused the Biden administration, which filed its own regulations last year seeking to prevent Schedule F’s return, of “protecting poor performers.”
Trump Administration Moves To Eliminate Bureau Of Prisons Union
April 2, 2025 // Each month, Labor Management Relations meetings take place between the BOP’s union, American Federal Government Employees Council 33, and executive management at every prison. Many times, these meetings are constructive but there are complexities in running an agency with 36,000 employees. Often, the union members who primarily are the face of the agency to the prisoners they watch over, feel disconnected from management according to union representatives
CONNECTICUT: OPM employee allegedly defrauded Medicaid of $1.8M while on the job
March 6, 2025 // A former Office of Policy and Management employee allegedly defrauded Medicaid of roughly $1.8 million while simultaneously earning more than $90,000 per year as a labor relations specialist, according to a U.S. Justice Department’s case against Suhail Aponte and a review of state payroll records. Aponte worked as a labor relations and public information specialist for Hartford Public Schools before being hired by the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) in May of 2022, nearly one year after forming Minds Cornerstone, LLC, a business that purported to offer services for children with autism.
Mayor Adams backs out of campaign forum hosted by key NYC union
February 27, 2025 // DC 37 backed Adams in 2021, becoming one of several labor unions that supported his mayoral campaign. But it is unclear whether Adams can retain labor support as he campaigns for a second term. His path to re-election has become increasingly difficult amid poor approval ratings and scrutiny over his relationship with President Donald Trump.