official time

Lobotomizing of federal telework programs could be happening for a couple of reasons but the coronavirus is presenting a new test of that trend.

Leadership on two House committees are skeptical of a proposed rule from the EEOC, which would reverse a 40-year-old policy allowing union representatives official time to prepare discrimination complaints on behalf of their coworkers.

An online database of nearly 800 agency collective bargaining agreements is now live on the Office of Personnel Management’s website. The creation of a common, public CBA system was a requirement of the president’s 2018 workforce executive orders.

Amid pressure from lawmakers and a bad-faith ruling from the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the American Federation of Government Employees and Environmental Protection Agency have agreed to return to the bargaining table.

Agencies and federal employee unions at last have more guidance on how to implement the all provisions of the president’s workforce executive orders. 

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.

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.

After determining the Department of Health and Human Services bargained in “bad faith” with the National Treasury Employees Union, an independent arbitrator has directed both parties to return to the collective bargaining table. HHS, however, can appeal the arbitrator’s decision.

The Office of Personnel Management on Friday instructed agencies to begin implementing the president’s workforce executive orders on official time, collective bargaining and employee removals.

A new collective bargaining agreement between the Social Security Administration and the American Federation of Government Employees gives the union a smaller bank of official time hours than it had before, but more than representatives would see under the president’s workforce executive orders.