Unions

The federal government’s half-million telecommuters are watching, many in horror, what is happening at the Social Security Administration where 11,000 teleworkers have been ordered back to the office.

The Federal Service Impasses Panel ordered an existing telework program remain for some 2,100 attorneys, decision writers and other employees at the Social Security Administration’s Office of Hearings Operation represented by the National Treasury Employees Union.

Federal employee unions have until Jan. 10 to inform the Department of Veterans Affairs whether they would stay and pay rent or leave their currently occupied, government-owned VA office space. The president’s 2018 workforce executive orders require unions to pay rent in order to continue using agency property.

In the middle of the telework argument are people who believe teleworking is as good or bad as the individual who is allowed to work from home.

The idea of extending paid family leave for federal employees comes up year after year in Congress. Bob Tobias thinks it’s long overdue, and in fact the policy is making its way into some union contracts already.

The Federal Salary Council is still debating a series of controversial changes to the methodology currently used to set federal employee locality pay.

The Social Security Administration said Friday it would delay the end of its telework program by two additional weeks to give operations employees more time to adjust to the policy changes.

Unions facing pushback nearly everywhere they turn. And one battles an internal demon.

The Social Security Administration is ending its telework program for some 12,000 operations employees after six years. The agency’s decision coincides with the start of its new collective bargaining agreement with the American Federation of Government Employees.

J. David Cox, the national president of the largest federal employee union, will take a leave of absence amid sexual harassment allegations. The American Federation of Government Employees will launch an investigation into the matter, and Cox has denied the allegations.

A new bill would require the relocation of 10 departments and 90% of their Washington, D.C.-based employee positions to economically distressed areas of the country by 2033. But AFGE is pushing back.

In today’s Federal Newscast, over 40 Senate Democrats express opposition to how the Environmental Protection Agency is handling its collective bargaining with the American Federation of Government Employees.

Federal employees, members of Congress and good government governments remember the late House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman, Elijah Cummings, as a champion for the federal workforce and a staunch and vocal supporter of whistleblowers.

The Trump administration has clarified how agencies should proceed with current, ongoing collective bargaining negotiations with federal employee union, now that the president’s workforce executive orders are in full force.