Workforce
GAO: Effectively ending telework increased attrition at Social Security
The government watchdog reported that the already beleaguered Social Security Administration is at risk of “losing many staff in the near term” as a result of the Trump administration’s push to excise the workplace flexibility from federal agencies.
Workforce
NTEU, White House spar over whether unions can challenge their ouster administratively
The Trump administration contends unions can seek review of their ouster from most federal agencies on national security grounds before the Federal Labor Relations Authority, but labor groups say that analysis misconstrues a term of art in federal labor law.
Workforce
Trump defends cutting nearly 300,000 feds from their ‘boring’ jobs
The president claimed without evidence that all federal workers forced out during his first year back were now in “better” jobs in factories making double or triple their government salary.
Pay & Benefits
Lawmakers propose 35% pay raise for federal prison workers
Bipartisan legislation would establish a special pay rate for employees at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons until the agency reduces its reliance on mandatory overtime and augmentation of support staff’s duties.
Workforce
Judge: TSA ‘plainly’ violated court order with renewed union busting push
The Homeland Security Department’s planned ouster of the American Federation of Government Employees from the Transportation Security Administration, scheduled to take effect Sunday, must now be halted.
Workforce
AFGE urges appellate judges to uphold injunction against Trump’s anti-union EOs
A three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last summer blocked a lower court ruling that found President Trump violated federal employees’ First Amendment rights when it targeted two-thirds of the government workforce for removal of their collective bargaining rights.
Pay & Benefits
Congressional appropriators won’t codify Trump’s ban on gender-affirming care for feds after all
Compromise minibus appropriations legislation unveiled Sunday removes a provision that would have affirmed the Trump administration’s removal of gender-affirming care from federal workers’ health insurance in statute.
Workforce
Probationary appeal rights under further threat by OPM proposal
Under proposed rules issued last week, newly hired federal workers would no longer be able to appeal adverse actions to the Merit Systems Protection Board.
Pay & Benefits
OPM finalizes 3.8% raise for federal law enforcement
The additional 2.8% pay increase set aside for law enforcement personnel takes the form of a special pay rate.
Workforce
Arbitrator: Trump’s union EOs violate ‘hierarchy of law’
Independent federal arbitrator Marvin Hill defied the Trump administration's demand that he dismiss an internal grievance against the Defense Department, remarking that to do so would require "re-writing" most legal textbooks.
Pay & Benefits
Domestic TSP funds falter to close out 2025
Most portfolios within the federal government’s 401(k)-style retirement savings program were flat last month.
Workforce
The twists and turns of Trump’s 2025 war on unions
Since returning to office, the Trump administration has engaged in a series of efforts to sideline labor representatives within the federal government.
Workforce
Supreme Court won’t halt judge’s probe into civil service laws’ virility, for now
The unsigned order, which prompted no public dissents, suggested the Trump administration could return to the high court if the federal district court’s factfinding mission commences before justices consider whether to formally take on the case.
Pay & Benefits
Trump finalizes 1% pay raise for most feds
The president also tasked OPM Director Scott Kupor with analyzing whether to provide federal law enforcement officers with a 3.8% pay increase, in line with what military service members are set to receive next month.
Exclusive
Management
Trump to limit top ratings for all feds and consolidate scoring in forthcoming rule
Though the forced distribution of performance ratings is “categorically prohibited” under current rules, federal agencies already appear to be adopting the system, before the proposal has even been announced.
Workforce
Appellate judges mull challenge to Trump’s efforts to bust most federal labor unions
Much of the discussion in oral arguments for three separate lawsuits revolved around whether an administrative board could hear unions’ legal claims and whether President Trump used a faulty definition of 'national security' when he devised two executive orders banning unions at most federal agencies.
Workforce
TSA plans to bust labor union despite court order blocking it
The Trump administration’s efforts to unwind collective bargaining for airport security screeners have been blocked since June, when a federal judge found the initiative was aimed at “punishing” the nation’s largest federal worker union.
Workforce
House passes bill nullifying Trump’s anti-union EOs
Twenty Republicans crossed party lines to support legislation to unwind what opponents described as the largest act of “union busting” in U.S. history.
Workforce
FBI agents fired over 2020 protest actions sue for reinstatement
A dozen former FBI agents said their decision to kneel while responding to 2020 protests against police brutality was a tactical one, required as the result of the first Trump administration’s decision to deploy federal agents without crowd control equipment or training.
Workforce