Posts tagged Office of Personnel Management
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.”
Op-ed: Congress should be wary of Labor agency’s plea for more cash
December 21, 2022 // Still, even as the NLRB is claiming it does not have the resources to carry out its mission, Abruzzo through a series of memos has instructed the agency to pursue legal theories that take time to research instead of letting staffers simply enforce agreed-upon law. For instance, she issued a memo telling agents to guard against “ unlawful threats and coercive activity ” by employers, which sounds reasonable until one considers that Abruzzo views employee meetings on unionization, mandatory companywide meetings to discuss unionization where employees are fully compensated for their time, as borderline coercive. The NLRB could also cut down on the use of official time. Official time is when union workers are paid their taxpayer-funded salaries to do union work rather than the government jobs they were hired to do.
Do arbitrators go easy on federal employees who challenge being fired?
October 4, 2022 // So in the federal sector, if you’re represented by a union, you have an option if your agency tries to fire you. you can appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board what we think of as these standard civil service protections. But you can also file a grievance under your union contract, it’s an either or you can’t do both. But if you choose to, you can file a grievance under the union contract, and your union can bring that instead to an arbitrator. Generally, these are private contractors, they work with the private sector unions, with the private companies with nothing to do with unions, as well as with the the federal workforce, there’s a master roster, maintained by the Federal Mediation Conciliation Service, and the contracts pretty much all say, you’ll get a list of names from this master roster, people strike names to union agency until one guy’s left. That guy then is the arbitrator.
Union deletes document after report shows taxpayer-funded collusion with Biden administration
September 1, 2022 // “This upgraded resource will be an excellent tool for our union to locate non-union employees across the federal government who are rightfully entitled to representation and a voice in their workplace,” NFFE National President Randy Erwin said in the release, which has now been removed. “NFFE specifically requested assistance in identifying the hundreds of thousands of unrepresented government workers, and today OPM delivered on its commitment to promote employee organizing and collective bargaining by rolling out the enhanced database. We are excited to help these federal employees who have not yet joined a union organize in their workplaces and obtain critical rights and benefits through unionizing.”
Biden administration uses taxpayer dollars to help grow public unions, critics push back
August 26, 2022 // “This upgraded resource will be an excellent tool for our union to locate non-union employees across the federal government who are rightfully entitled to representation and a voice in their workplace,” said NFFE National President Randy Erwin. “NFFE specifically requested assistance in identifying the hundreds of thousands of unrepresented government workers, and today OPM delivered on its commitment to promote employee organizing and collective bargaining by rolling out the enhanced database. We are excited to help these federal employees who have not yet joined a union organize in their workplaces and obtain critical rights and benefits through unionizing.”
Which agencies are the biggest potential targets for union growth?
August 24, 2022 // f…
Federal unions have a way to locate unrepresented employees, OPM says
August 22, 2022 // The Office of Personnel Management has offered some extra help to federal unions looking to add eligible employees to their membership rosters. Federal unions have tools available in FedScope, OPM’s online federal employee database, to identify which agencies have the largest amounts of unrepresented workers, said Tim Curry, OPM’s deputy associate director for accountability and workforce relations, in an email obtained by Federal News Network. On the other hand, the departments of Education, Energy, Labor, State and Treasury, as well as the Department of Housing and Urban Development, were among the agencies with the lowest numbers of unrepresented workers. The most recent data available in FedScope is from March 2022. NFFE National President Randy Erwin,
OPM, NTEU offer recommendations to improve relationships between agencies, unions
July 22, 2022 // Earlier this year, the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment made 70 recommendations to enhance federal unions, including providing information on unions to federal employees and improving transparency. labor-management relations, Tony Reardon, Tim Curry, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, Obama and Clinton administrations, Frontline employees
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,
Federal groups, unions back paid leave for feds seeking abortion services
July 5, 2022 // Federal unions and organizations are pushing the government to expand paid leave for federal employees to access abortion services in the wake of the historic Supreme Court ruling. The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade on June 24 holds potential ramifications for agency employees across the country, such as the need for some feds to travel across state lines to obtain an abortion. AFGE, Everett Kelle, Hyde amendment, Department of Veterans Affairs,