Workforce
Arbitrator restores telework and remote work at the Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service violated its collective bargaining agreement with the National Federation of Federal Employees last year when it unilaterally canceled telework and remote work agreements en masse as part of the Trump administration’s return-to-office mandate.
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Oversight
Former civil servants and union request IG investigation into transfer of Education program to Labor
House Republicans recently introduced a package of bills that would codify the Trump administration’s interagency agreements that move Education offices to other agencies.
Workforce
Unions sue to restore DOD collective bargaining rights, asserting ‘chaos’
A new lawsuit alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s order last April to terminate most union contracts led to a slapdash implementation process that stripped bargaining rights even from those exempt from President Trump’s anti-labor executive orders.
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Workforce
Some disabled veterans say losing telework accommodations is making it harder for them to keep working at the VA
Employees with disabilities at several agencies have alleged that they’re being forced to return to the office, even though the Trump administration’s directive ending telework flexibility for the civil service exempted those with qualifying reasonable accommodations.
Updated
Management
Unions sue to block USDA reorganization, arguing it’s a RIF in disguise
A court filing says that impacted employees must report to their new assigned locations across the country by this fall.
Workforce
Union accuses Treasury and HHS of neglecting telework requests from employees with disabilities
The lawsuit highlights federal employees who have been waiting for more than a year to hear back about their reasonable accommodation requests as well as individuals whose need to telework ended before the agency responded.
Workforce
IRS agrees to stop stealing workers’ pro-union decorations
The National Treasury Employees Union sued the agency earlier this month after multiple instances in which management confiscated and disposed of flyers and other decorations from employees’ workstations and communal bulletin boards.
Workforce
Judge halts Trump administration effort to exert political control over union elections
U.S. District Judge Denise Caspar said the Federal Labor Relations Authority’s move earlier this year to usurp jurisdiction over some cases from career employees was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act.
Management
As opposition mounts, House cancels vote on VA overhaul bill
House Democrats and veterans service organizations warned that a bill Republicans claim will increase benefits "robs Peter to pay Paul" and hastens efforts to privatize veteran health care.
Workforce
Unions urge court to force ruling in ‘loyalty question’ lawsuit
Three months after a hearing on whether to block federal agencies from asking four politicized essay questions of every federal job applicant, a federal judge still has not issued a decision.
Management
GOP’s VA overhaul bill narrows some employees’ rights, spurs privatization, union says
The Take Care of America’s Veterans Act also would cut some vets’ disability benefits and push the Veterans Affairs Department to bring back telework in some form.
Workforce
NTEU sues IRS over destruction of employees’ pro-union decorations
The Internal Revenue Service last month issued a directive barring employees from posting flyers and other decorations related to the National Treasury Employees Union, which the union says violates the First Amendment.
Workforce
Union renews call for lawmakers to override Trump’s anti-union EO at the Pentagon
Last year, the House voted to pass its annual defense policy bill with a provision that would have halted implementation of President Trump’s executive order banning collective bargaining at the Defense Department and other agencies, but the Senate axed the measure.
Workforce
Trump’s edict making 8,000 feds at-will employees draws swift outcry
Agencies have just one week to reclassify thousands of federal workers in purportedly policy-related roles into the new Schedule Policy/Career, stripping them of most civil service protections.
Workforce
Appeals court upholds order reinstating VA’s union contracts
A unanimous three-judge panel found that only a district judge’s requirement that the Veterans Affairs Department “comply” with its collective bargaining agreements should be put on hold while litigation proceeds.
Workforce
‘Sermonizing’ Easter email prompts USDA employees to sue agency
In response to the lawsuit, the department said, “we will keep the plaintiffs in our prayers.”
Updated
Workforce
How an obscure federal agency threatens to upend union disputes
The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service has begun delaying and denying union requests for arbitrators to hear grievance cases, a move that has shocked longtime experts.
Pay & Benefits
House GOP on Trump’s 2027 pay freeze: ‘That’s politics’
Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee last week beat back multiple attempts to increase federal workers’ pay next year and restore their workplace rights.
Workforce
Labor groups sue to block FLRA’s political seizure of union elections
Federal employee unions warned that fast-tracked changes centralizing control of union representation petitions with the agency’s political appointees will bog down, rather than streamline, the election process.
Workforce