Workforce Rights/Governance

With a spike in the number of furloughed federal employees seeking unemployment benefits, some workers have sought to make up for lost income by taking advantage of the “gig economy.”

The National Treasury Employees Union has added a third count to its lawsuit against the Trump administration and questioned the legality of the decision to recall some IRS employees during the government shutdown.

A federal district judge refused to compel the executive branch to find an immediate end to the government shutdown’s impacts on excepted federal employees working without pay. The judge’s decision maintains the status quo. Other lawsuits challenging the shutdown’s legitimacy are still pending.

Tiffany Boiman, director of office and policy programs at the Labor Department’s Women’s Bureau, joined Women of Washington to discuss her career path and the department’s continuing efforts to close the gender gap in the workforce and beyond.

Absent specific guidance on the matter, federal employees walk a tricky line in accepting furlough donations and complying with existing ethics rules.

The National Treasury Employees Union said excepted federal employees who have been working without pay during the partial government shutdown should be paid full wages, including overtime, and other damages.

The Defense Department Inspector General’s Office saw a more than 25 percent increase in employee satisfaction since 2015.

For the Trump administration, 2018 was a productive year filled small, but productive steps toward its goal of modernizing the federal workforce. But it was a very different kind of year for federal employee unions.

In today’s Federal Newscast, the Federal Protective Service mismanaged its payroll and budget leading to excessive overtime and spending shortfalls. 

The Department of Health and Human Services is considering a new proposal that would limit HHS employees to one day of telework a week, according to the National Treasury Employees Union.

OSC says federal employees can talk about impeachment, but directly advocating for or against it may violate the Hatch Act.

The newly installed chief of the U.S. Forest Service has promised to change the agency’s culture of widespread harassment, misconduct and retaliation. But what would that take?

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee failed to clear any of the president’s nominees to fill the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), creating dim prospects for the agency’s future.

Federal employee union leaders, like their members, are finding a lot to worry about right now. A partial lapse in funding could be looming. A big dispute with the Trump administration is dragging on.