Workforce Rights/Governance
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The Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, which senators introduced last week, may have more momentum than previous bills. It now has 12 co-sponsors, including four Democrats and VA Secretary David Shulkin himself. Yet some federal employee groups and experts question whether the new bill has the teeth to truly tackle long entrenched cultural problems at the department.
May 16, 2017 -
Open government and press organizations are fighting back against the new communications policy the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee recently set between his committee and the Treasury Department. The new policy says any communication between the committee and the department will be considered a "congressional record" and therefore isn't subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
May 15, 2017 -
Members of the Senate have reached a long awaited agreement on new accountability procedures for senior executives and employees within the Veterans Affairs Department. A bipartisan group of senators introduced the Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act Thursday morning. It would change current disciplinary appeals rights for both SES and rank-and-file employees.
May 11, 2017 -
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld an appeal from Sharon Helman, the former director of the beleaguered Veterans Affairs medical center in Phoenix, Arizona, who was fired in 2014. The court said a key provision that lets VA more quickly fire and discipline senior executives is unconstitutional. The Merit Systems Protection Board will review the original decision an administrative judge made regarding Helman's removal.
May 09, 2017 -
New Defense guidance says the blanket hiring freeze is now over. But it includes several caveats in line with the goal of reorganizing and reducing the size of the federal workforce.
May 03, 2017 -
The executive order establishes the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protections as a new entity within VA. The new office will identify barriers and duplicative processes and resources to quickly disciplining and firing VA employees for poor performance or misconduct.
April 27, 2017 Sexual harassment at work is page one stuff of late. It's everywhere, says Senior Correspondent Mike Causey, even in federal offices.
April 24, 2017-
It's unclear exactly when Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz will leave office, but his departure as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committees opens the door to a variety of new candidates, who have the opportunity to shift the committee's focus back to issues of federal and financial management and government efficiency.
April 21, 2017 -
What do federal employees think about President Donald Trump's plans to reorganize the federal government? Find out this week on Your Turn when host Mike Causey talks with Federal News Radio Executive Editor Jason Miller and NARFE Legislative Director Jessica Klement. April 19, 2017
April 18, 2017 -
When we think of sexual harassment at the office it's usually a male boss or coworker bothering a female subordinate. Senior Correspondent Mike Causey wonders if that dynamic is changing.
April 18, 2017 -
Senior Correspondent Mike Causey points to one agency that's trying to shrug off its image as a haven of sexual harassment.
April 14, 2017 -
Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney sent a memo to agency leaders outlining a series of long and short term actions agencies need to take around reducing the number of employees, improving how they measure employee performance and restructure their mission areas.
April 11, 2017 -
Navy and other Defense officials tried, but failed to persuade Congress to make the change as part of the 2017 Defense authorization bill that passed in December. But top Navy personnel officials are lobbying lawmakers to include the language in this year’s bill. It would allow military promotion boards to place officers “of particular merit” at the top of promotion lists, ahead of their peers.
April 06, 2017 -
For the second year in a row, the Equal Employment Opportunity Rights Commission is hosting a series of webinars on various employment discrimination topics. Patricia St. Clair, EEOC’s assistant director for federal sector programs, talked with Federal News Radio’s Jared Serbu on Federal Drive with Tom Temin about the commission’s focus areas for online training in 2017.
March 30, 2017 -
The Office of Personnel Management recently released a long-awaited report on official time for fiscal 2014. It found agencies used slightly more official time that year than fiscal 2012, the last time OPM completed a governmentwide report on the topic. The report's release comes as Congress looks to limit federal employees' official time use.
March 27, 2017