Unions

Phase one of the Energy Department’s reopening plan for headquarters facilities in the national capital region will involves 3.7% of its 7,000-person workforce. Those employees will return June 8, while the rest will continue to telework.

Masks aren’t required at Office of Personnel Management facilities, and employees with limited transportation or dependent care options will be “encouraged” to telework throughout phases one and two of the agency’s reopening plan.

Workforce changes may be coming soon to two subcomponents at the Department of Homeland Security, including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, where more than half of its employees could face furloughs without emergency supplemental funding from Congress.

The Postal Service is testing a daily temperature check “proof of concept” in Northern Virginia and Oklahoma City for employees reporting for work and returning from quarantine. 

The American Federation of Government Employees is seeking immediate injunctive relief in its lawsuit against the Federal Service Impasses Panel, which may soon weigh in on the union’s collective bargaining disputes with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Not many people would trade jobs with those who have to keep watch over inmates in federal prisons. Now that job has become even more dangerous.

The Veterans Health Administration is tracking 1,293 coronavirus cases among its employees since March, according to the department’s public data. The department has also announced a phased plan for resuming normal operations at its medical facilities, benefits offices and cemeteries.

During Public Service Recognition Week (PSRW), let’s take a moment to thank civil servants and recognize the contributions they make to our way of life, every day — pandemic or not.

When you put those burgers on the grill this weekend, remember the 6,500 federal food safety inspectors working in meatpacking plants ordered to stay open.

The Social Security Administration said it’s still working with its payroll provider to fully implement and administer emergency paid sick leave benefits under a new coronavirus relief law. But federal employee unions say the delays are confusing given their experience with other agencies.

Air traffic controllers support the entire aviation system of the US. There’s another group, perhaps less well-known, that keeps the air traffic controllers going.

Each year, tax professionals urge people who are due refunds to file early and electronically. Now there’s a new reason to do just that.

In today’s Federal Newscast, as agencies are developing their plans to reopen offices, the National Treasury Employees Union releases its own conditions.

Close to 1,900 employees at the Veterans Health Administration have been diagnosed with coronavirus, and 20 have died from complications, the department said Wednesday.