Author Archive
Workforce
Judge rejects VA’s third attempt to cancel union contracts
U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose OK'd a motion to enforce her prior preliminary injunction preserving collective bargaining at the Veterans Affairs Department on the eve of its planned termination of a collective bargaining agreement with AFGE.
Pay & Benefits
The state of play around the 2027 pay raise, or lack thereof
Thus far, neither chamber of Congress has put forth a plan that would override President Trump’s planned pay freeze for next year.
Workforce
Mediation agency changes how labor disputes move forward
The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service says it is clarifying when it can decline to provide arbitrators, a change unions say exceeds its role.
Pay & Benefits
TSP investments continued to tumble in July
Nearly all of the portfolios in the federal government’s 401(k)-style retirement savings program lost value last month.
Pay & Benefits
LGBTQ+ feds sue to restore FEHB coverage of gender affirming care
A class action lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s campaign to block gender affirming care coverage under federal agencies’ employer-sponsored health insurance program said the move is “akin to denying continuing insulin treatment for someone with diabetes.”
Workforce
OPM finalizes rules expanding its power over RIFs, employee appeals
Taken together, four regulations set for publication Monday would shift adjudication of several types of adverse action appeals from the Merit Systems Protection Board to the Office of Personnel Management.
Workforce
VA’s third attempt to scrap union contract heads back to court
The Veterans Affairs Department says it is following the terms of an expiring agreement. AFGE argues VA is ignoring a requirement to keep the contract in place during negotiations.
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Workforce
AFGE sues over EEOC’s apparent shutdown of class action cases against agencies
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chairwoman Andrea Lucas surreptitiously ordered a halt on all class-action proceedings in which a federal agency is a defendant last December, despite regulations requiring such cases be handled “promptly.”
Oversight
Dem senators demand answers on SSA field office closures despite Bisignano’s vow
Just weeks after the Social Security commissioner falsely accused his predecessor of turning away members of the public, lawmakers say Bisignano has done just that.
Pay & Benefits
NARFE still has concerns with OPM’s plan to collect employee health care records
Last month, the Office of Personnel Management sought to assuage concerns about its request for claims-level data on federal workers’ health insurance usage. Employee groups say it’s still not enough.
Management
USPS nominations test the future of bipartisan boards
Federal law requires that no more than five members of USPS’ Board of Governors be from the same political party. The Trump administration has only submitted Republican nominees so far.
Workforce
Unions ask for injunction restoring collective bargaining at Defense
The latest filing from a pair of federal employee unions highlights the ways in which the Pentagon strayed from the Trump administration’s own guidance for implementing the president’s executive order banning collective bargaining at most agencies on national security grounds.
Pay & Benefits
OPM moves to implement long-awaited retirement fix for federal first responders
The First Responders Fair RETIRE Act, which ensures federal workers can stay on accelerated mandatory retirement schedules even if they transfer to another due to injury, was signed into law in 2022.
Workforce
Arbitrator restores telework for IRS workers
The Internal Revenue Service withdrew from participating in the National Treasury Employees Union’s grievance against the agency for its 2025 return-to-office push in March, forcing independent arbitrator Christopher Shulman to conduct proceedings with management in absentia.
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Management
House GOP cancels VA overhaul vote again
House Republicans narrowly defeated a motion that would have sent the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act back to committee but has struggled to build support for its counter to a looming discharge petition to advance another bill aimed at increasing veterans’ benefits.
Workforce
More than 50 Dem lawmakers demand more Schedule F transparency
Efforts to understand the true scope of the recent executive order moving around 8,000 career federal jobs into Schedule Policy/Career, making their incumbents effectively at-will employees, have been stymied by the administration’s scant public documentation.
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.
Workforce
Fired EPA dissenters sue for reinstatement, alleging First Amendment violations
Seven former EPA employees said they were targeted for removal for signing an open “declaration of dissent” in their personal capacities because they had fewer civil service protections rather than any wrongdoing.
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.
Workforce
Trump wants to scrap a key framework for federal employee discipline
Officials said the Douglas factors, 12 criteria federal agencies have used for 45 years to devise and justify discipline for misconduct, are too restrictive and “mechanistic.” Practitioners disagree.
