Posts tagged federal agencies
Agencies, unions tell fed workers: Don’t answer Musk’s threat email
February 25, 2025 // "AFGE will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country," union president Everett Kelley said in a statement Saturday night. Kelley sent a letter to OPM acting director Charles Ezell on Sunday, demanding the email be withdrawn by that night. The AFGE also sent guidance to members Sunday saying they should respond if ordered to do so by their agencies.
Unions play catch up as DOGE rips through federal agencies
February 11, 2025 // They’re expanding a lawsuit that seeks to protect the Labor Department’s data systems to include other agencies.
Trump tells federal agencies to root out disguised DEI programs
January 27, 2025 // The American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents 800,000 federal employees, called Trump's order an excuse for "firing civil servants."
Employment Law Landscape Could Change After Election
September 16, 2024 // During the Trump administration the NLRB majority narrowed the scope of the National Labor Relations Act in several key respects and established a more neutral approach to union organizing. The Biden/Harris administration, which styled itself as the “most union-friendly in history,” reversed virtually all of the Trump-era policies, significantly expanded the scope of the law, and tilted the organizing landscape in favor of organized labor, Hayes said.
Sen. Joni Ernst Introduces Legislation To Track Taxpayer Dollars Subsidizing Federal Employee Unions
March 15, 2024 // President Joe Biden’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) stopped reporting “taxpayer-funded union time,” or “official time,” which agencies use to pay federal employees to conduct activities on behalf of federal employee labor unions, not the agencies which employ them or U.S. taxpayers. In 2019, which is the last year for which data is available, OPM reported that union activities during official time cost taxpayers $135 million. Federal employees spent 2.6 million hours, or 296 years, working for their union instead of doing their agency jobs.
The Impacts of Chevron Deference on Labor and Industry
February 7, 2024 // The Amicus brief alleges that the Chevron doctrine has enabled the NLRB’s “unworkable track record of frequent flip-flopping,” due in part to a consistently changing Board. According to the filing by CDW, “the Board’s membership is subject to frequent and continued change, and whenever a new Board majority disagrees with a prior precedent, it often overrules that precedent.” Additionally, “it is customary (though not mandated by statute) that no more than three of the five members will belong to the President’s political party.” This means each President can guarantee a majority of the Board will share his ideological priorities. The CDW argues this has created instability as rules are constantly changing with each new Board.
Unions are “Baking In” Remote Work for Federal Employees
January 19, 2023 // But the prospect of conflict with union contracts, uncovered by TechTarget, adds a wrinkle to any plans. “Remote work policies are also getting baked into federal employee union agreements, which could make it difficult for federal agencies to order workers back to the office even if they wanted to,” the story said. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) claims to be “made up of over 281,000 workers in almost every agency of the federal and D.C. governments, spread across 936 local unions.” In December 2022, after some extended legal struggles with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the union said that the two parties had reached a settlement over immediate flexible work arrangements “while we negotiate terms for a permanent telework program.”
U.S. agency heads can’t review extended bargaining agreements – court
August 16, 2022 // A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday struck down a federal labor board's Trump-era guidance that made it easier for federal agencies to make changes to union contracts that are extended beyond their expiration dates while a new agreement is being negotiated. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit sided with three major federal-worker unions that challenged the Federal Labor Relations Authority's 2020 guidance, which said agency heads can review and alter bargaining agreements that are subject to "continuance clauses." Circuit Judge Gregory Katsas, Circuit Judges Patricia Millett and Neomi Rao, National Treasury Employees Union v. FLRA, U.S. Court of Appeals, Kathryn Bailey of the National Treasury Employees Union, Deputy Solicitor Rebecca Osborne, Joseph Busa of the U.S. Department of Justice,
Hybrid work may be permanent fixture for government employees, Cisco finds
July 20, 2022 // More than 90% of technology decision-makers in federal, state and local governments are satisfied with their remote work arrangement, with a current average of four remote days per week. Almost 60% work entirely remotely, the report found in surveying 300 executives, administrators and IT professionals in government from February to March. Regardless of whether you’re talking about civilian service or national security, including the DoD and intelligence communities, at the end of the day I think this gives them a much needed opportunity to truly modernize,” said Marcus Moffett, Cisco’s chief technology officer for the U.S. public sector, told Federal Times in an interview. Cisco Systems Inc, Professional Services Council, officials from OPM and the General Services Administration, Peter Bonner, associate director of Human Resources Solutions at OPM, diverse applicants and skills-based training, maximizing workplace flexibility, Chris Bennethum,
Exclusive: 16 GOP Governors Oppose Biden’s Executive Order Creating Monopoly On Federal Construction Contracts
April 26, 2022 // Reducing competition from some of the best union and nonunion construction firms and workers will exacerbate the construction industry’s skilled labor shortage, delay projects, and increase construction costs by estimates of 12% to 20% per project, which will result in fewer infrastructure improvements, less construction industry job creation, and higher taxes.