Posts tagged federal government
End the Practice of Federal Government Serving as Unions’ Bill Collector
August 9, 2023 // The Paycheck Protection Act would help federal employees by requiring their unions to be more transparent and accountable to them. It would protect taxpayers by no longer requiring them to foot the bill for a private organization’s bill collections. And it would eliminate the special-interest bill collection subsidy granted to federal employee unions.
Burlison introduces bill to stop automatic Union payroll deductions
July 31, 2023 // Missouri 7th District Representative Eric Burlison introduced the Paycheck Protection Act, which will establish transparency and protect the rights of federal employees by prohibiting labor unions from deducting dues directly from their paychecks. Labor unions, unlike other dues-paying membership groups, are allowed to deduct dues directly from paychecks. The Paycheck Protection Act would eliminate this practice by requiring federal labor unions to collect dues payments directly from their members. Burlison said the measure will empower workers with vital information about the exact amount of dues they pay, thereby promoting transparency, financial awareness, and informed decision-making.
Commentary: To Unions, Organizing Time Is Fine When It’s on the Taxpayers’ Dime
June 29, 2023 // Despite public sector unions, and particularly teachers’ unions like Weingarten’s American Federation for Teachers, facing mounting scrutiny for their role in school closures and broader left-wing political activism, the practice of release time has garnered little attention.
Why Work from Home Jobs are Here to Stay for Federal Government Employees
May 31, 2023 // Given that passage into law would require a Democratic-controlled Senate and President Biden to go along, enactment of the Republican bill seems very unlikely. Potentially, Republicans could use passage of a final budget or even an increase of the debt ceiling, as a negotiation to push the measure into law, assuming they can get the votes. However, union agreements would still pose a serious challenge. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) boasts a membership of over 281,000 individuals working in almost every agency of the federal and D.C. governments, spanning across 936 local unions. In December 2022, after prolonged legal battles with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the union announced that they had reached a settlement for immediate flexible work arrangements while they negotiate terms for a permanent telework program.
GOP Lawmaker Introduces Bill to Curb Labor-Relations Board’s Authority over Small Businesses
May 18, 2023 // “Labor law is woefully out of date. The Small Businesses Before Bureaucrats Act brings much needed updates to the jurisdictional standards that would benefit small employers. Congressman Good is simply bringing those standards in line with what Congress originally intended. Small businesses do not have and should not need an army of lawyers and HR professionals to comply with the NLRB’s increasingly aggressive regulatory agenda. Congressman Good should be applauded for his efforts to protect mom and pop shop businesses and other job creators.” – F. Vincent Vernuccio , President, Institute for the American Worker
Julie Su, AB-5 Supporter and Inexperienced Nominee, Faces Criticism for Handling of California’s Unemployment Program
April 26, 2023 // Katy Grimes of the California Globe provides a detailed report. On February 28, when Biden nominated Su, California owed $18,868,506,716.36 to the federal government for unemployment benefits during the pandemic. By the time of Su’s hearing last week, the figure was $19,258,996,070.59, an increase of $390 million. Julie Su oversaw the unemployment program but blamed the Trump administration for the $40 billion loss. Su did not correct false claims that California had one of the lowest fraud rates under her leadership. Su also claimed that 95 percent of the fraud was related to Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA). As Grimes notes, California spent about $25 billion in PUA and lost about $40 billion overall, a fraud rate of almost 160 percent. So Su’s claim was false.
Opinion: Julie Su Keeps Failing Up, and Biden Doesn’t Care
April 10, 2023 // How in the world did Julie Su get nominated to run the federal Department of Labor? Su is a former civil rights attorney, former head of the California Department of Labor under Gov. Gavin Newsom, and head of California’s Department of Labor Standards Enforcement under former Gov. Jerry Brown. She was deputy director of the federal DOL and now is acting director as she awaits a tough Senate confirmation in the next few months. I had immediately thought that the Peter Principle might explain it. Coined by Canadian sociologist Laurence Peter in his 1968 book of the same name, it postulates that the tendency in all organizations is for “every employee to rise in the hierarchy through promotion until they reach a level of respective incompetence,” as Investopedia put it. But that surely can’t explain Su, who already reached that level in her previous employment. Investopedia also mentioned the Dilbert Principle, named after the comic strip: that big organizations promote people precisely because of their incompetence. In other words, they promote them to get them out of the way. Su was California’s top labor official and ultimately responsible for the Employment Development Department when a major scandal rocked that unemployment insurance–disbursing bureau. “California has given away at least $20 billion to criminals in the form of fraudulent unemployment benefits, state officials said Monday, confirming a number smaller than originally feared but one that still accounts for more than 11 percent of all benefits paid since the start of the pandemic,” according to a 2021 Los Angeles Times report.
OPM Tells Agencies to Review Exclusions from Bargaining Units
February 1, 2023 // It added: “OPM acknowledges agencies undertaking a comprehensive review of bargaining unit coverage may conclude existing bargaining unit employees who encumber positions should be excluded from bargaining unit coverage under the Statute. Such matters will be resolved by the FLRA.” The memo is the latest in a series of steps from the Biden administration favorable to unions in the federal workplace. Among those are guidance encouraging agencies to create labor-management forums and involve unions in more decisions outside the bargaining context; to provide job candidates and newly hired employees information about union rights, including allowing unions to be involved in new employee orientation; and to promptly process employee requests to have dues withheld.
READOUT: At US Department of Labor, Workers’ Voice Summit stresses collaboration in addressing workers’ rights concerns
October 6, 2022 // Event focused on workforce equity, expanding accessibility for underserved workers U.S. Department of Labor officials gathered with workers, union representatives and labor organizers from a range of industries to discuss the value of building relationships and collaborating on ideas to address workers’ concerns at its Workers’ Voice Summit, Sept. 27-29, 2022. Hosted by the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the three-day summit focused on trends affecting workers and the need to foster open dialogue to identify workplace problems and find solutions. Participants also discussed the benefits of advancing equity and making the department more accessible to underserved workers and their advocates. Officials from the department’s Wage and Hour Division, Office of the Solicitor, Women’s Bureau, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, and Office of Public Engagement also joined the event.