Author Archive
Pay & Benefits
GSA announces per diem increases for feds this fall
Beginning in October, the amount federal agencies reimburse employees for daily lodging associated with official travel will increase by at least $3.
Pay & Benefits
Air traffic controllers are still waiting on 2.8% of their congressionally approved pay raise
Federal Aviation Administrator Bryan Bedford says the agency needs to improve how it uses its existing workforce before he will release the rest of the increase.
Workforce
Former pardon atty calls MSPB ‘a dead end,’ sues for reinstatement
Liz Oyer, who was fired from her position as pardon attorney last year over her refusal to recommend that Mel Gibson’s right to own a firearm be restored, said the Justice Department did not follow its own policies when it removed her.
Pay & Benefits
TSP funds were back in the black in August
After two months of stock market slowdowns, the federal government’s 401(k)-style retirement savings program saw each of its offerings increase in value again.
Pay & Benefits
Trump’s 2027 pay freeze has unions warning of recruitment, retention problems
Critics of President Trump’s plan to keep most federal employees’, save for federal law enforcement officers and military service members, pay at 2026 levels say it picks winners and losers.
Pay & Benefits
Trump formally proposes pay freeze for most federal workers, 3.8% increase for law enforcement
In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, the president claimed that denying the federal workforce a pay raise will not hurt agency recruitment and retention efforts.
Workforce
EEOC votes to propose new rule stripping feds of hearing rights, class action complaints
Members of the public have just 30 days to digest and submit comments on a 130-page plan upending the process for alleging workplace discrimination at federal agencies.
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Workforce
Unions: OPM’s suitability and performance management overhauls assert ‘plenary’ authority over federal firing
A coalition of labor groups sued the Trump administration Monday, arguing recent moves to centralize authority within the Office of Personnel Management and insert subjective criteria into employee evaluations amount to an end-run around the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act.
Workforce
Unions accuse mediation agency of ‘doublespeak’ in updated lawsuit
The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service’s new policy allowing it to investigate the arbitrability of disputes if an agency objects to participating in them exceeds the “ministerial” agency’s authority, labor groups argue.
Oversight
Watchdog: NSA’s NDAs don’t comply with whistleblower law
As the Trump administration weighs instituting a standardized non-disclosure agreement for employees across government, one agency that already uses them routinely fails to educate workers about their whistleblower rights.
Workforce
Federal job listings provide clues for next set of Schedule P/C conversions
New analysis from the Partnership for Public Service reveals that agencies have begun advertising positions as Schedule Policy/Career or planned for the at-will job category.
Workforce
Archives workers granted telework ahead of D.C. IndyCar race
But a union representing employees at the National Archives’ headquarters said the measure should extend past this weekend, as the building is beset by temporary construction associated with the race.
Pay & Benefits
Bill expanding paid leave for feds is pared back in Senate
The upper chamber’s version of legislation extending 12 weeks of paid family leave each year to federal workers removes provisions allowing it to be used in connection with helping a family member who has been the victim of sexual assault, domestic violence or stalking.
Workforce
OPM finalizes expanded hazard pay for federal firefighters
Under regulations set to take effect next month, federal wildland firefighters will be eligible for 25% hazard pay in connection with work on prescribed burns.
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Pay & Benefits
Lawsuit seeks to enforce 2025 SCOTUS decision improving pay for feds called to active duty
In the 15 months since the Supreme Court ruled that federal workers who also serve as military reservists do not need to prove that an active duty deployment is “substantially connected” to a national emergency, OPM has yet to issue new guidance reflecting the new precedent.
Workforce
IRS says a new policy ‘moots’ NTEU’s First Amendment lawsuit. The union isn’t so sure
A new policy allows only “agency-sponsored materials” to be posted on communal office bulletin boards, but agency officials still say they have discretion to approve or deny other documents.
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.
