Pay & Benefits

Employee Group Calls on OPM to Ban Salary History from Hiring

An employee organization focused on gender equity at the Justice Department said the federal government should stop asking job applicants for their salary history, a practice that contributes to pay disparity across gender and race.

Management

Biden Nominates Ex-Merit Systems Protection Board Chair for Labor Authority

The White House also announced plans to nominate a new slate of Democratic appointees to the board that oversees the Thrift Savings Plan.

Workforce

New OPM Director Committed to 'Rebuilding' the HR Agency, Federal Workforce

Ahuja says she wants the agency to reassert itself in helping departments governmentwide become model 21st century employers.

Oversight

Social Security 'Overwhelmed' by Mail, Infuriating Customers Seeking Documents

With most employees teleworking during the pandemic, the watchdog faulted the agency for not having a system to track and return customers’ identification documents.

Pay & Benefits

TSP Funds Show Modest Gains in July

Only one of the portfolios in the federal government’s 401(k)-style retirement savings program lost value last month.

Workforce

House Panel Advances Bill to Extend TSA Employees the Same Pay System and Workplace Protections as Other Feds

The Rights of the TSA Workforce Act would apply Title 5 protections and the General Schedule pay scale to employees at the Transportation Security Administration.

Workforce

Biden Announces Vaccine-or-Masks Mandate for Feds, Some Contractors

Federal employees will have a choice: get vaccinated, or wear masks when indoors at federal facilities and subject themselves to regular COVID-19 testing.

Workforce

OMB Reinstitutes Mask Mandate in ‘High Transmission’ Regions, Including D.C.

The return of masking requirements at federal facilities comes amid concerns about the COVID-19 Delta variant.

Workforce

OPM Wants to See More Telework, Remote Work and ‘Maxiflex’ Schedules Post-COVID

Guidance published late last week promotes telework and other flexibilities as retention and recruitment tools.

Workforce

Unions Call on Biden to Name New Labor Board Appointees

More than six months into his administration, President Biden has yet to nominate a second Democrat to the Federal Labor Relations Authority, while the Federal Service Impasses Panel sits vacant.

Workforce

House Panel Advances Bill to Undo Trump Order on Administrative Law Judges

A bill working its way through Congress would restore the judges to the competitive civil service three years after the Trump administration gave agencies greater leeway in hiring decisions.

Workforce

AFGE, VA Reach Settlement to 'Reset' Labor Relations

The Veterans Affairs Department has agreed to reverse actions taken to crack down on unions during the Trump administration, including compensating union officials for leave they took in the absence of official time and reimbursing the union for past office space and equipment rentals.

Management

OPM Reclaims Human Capital Council Duties Following Failed GSA Merger

The Trump administration had moved the Chief Human Capital Officers Council’s staff from OPM to GSA shortly before Congress blocked the controversial plan to merge the agencies.

Pay & Benefits

House Panel Advances Bill Providing Feds Paid Family Leave

Republicans question the methodology of a last-minute preliminary study by the Congressional Budget Office, despite the fact that CBO does not do full reports until bills are sent to the House floor.

Oversight

GAO: Coast Guard Can Do More to Monitor Telework Use

Early in the pandemic, the service suffered from inadequate bandwidth and a laptop shortage, although those issues were alleviated by summer 2020.

Pay & Benefits

GPO To Offer Full-Time Telework After COVID

Around one-third of the agency’s 1,500 employees will be able to work entirely remotely, and officials said some will be able to move out of the Washington, D.C., area.

Workforce

House Spending Bill Pushes Social Security to Reverse Trump-era Workforce Changes

Language accompanying the bill orders a report by the end of 2021 on telework, and urges the agency to reverse actions that undercut the independence of administrative law judges.