NTEU Supports Federal Employees Under Attack

Federal employee rights and benefits are under attack.

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The collective bargaining agreement at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) expired. HHS proposed to eliminate 21 entire articles from the contract, including articles governing alternative work schedules, telework, performance appraisals, awards, and transit subsidies. HHS also proposed to exclude over 40 subjects from the grievance procedure. After only 2 ½ days, the HHS "bargaining team" declared an impasse, ending the "bargaining." This dispute will likely come before the Federal Service Impasse Panel, the panel that resolves disputes between federal agencies and unions representing federal employees. The panel's members are appointed by the President.

NTEU is pursuing measures on Capitol Hill, such as filing a bad-faith bargaining unfair labor practice grievance, in addition to the pending executive order lawsuit.

HHS' proposals mirror those that were unilaterally implemented at the Department of Education. Other NTEU represented agencies could be next. 

No Heat? You Can Telework!

Many of you received an email from facilities and/or your management over the last couple of days about the lack of heat in certain parts of the William Jefferson Clinton North and South buildings. We are told that the heating outage will not be resolved until next week. That means it will get mighty cold in your office and make it uncomfortable or unsafe to work there.

So what can you do?

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Daily Flexible Schedule

Have you ever gotten delayed coming into work? Did that stress you out because you were concerned that people were counting how many times you were late? Have you ever wanted flexibility to shift your schedule on a day-to-day basis without supervisor approval to handle child-care responsibilities, errands, or just because you like to vary things?

The Collective Bargaining Agreement approved last year includes a new schedule option called the Daily Flexible Schedule. Features include....

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Telework Available for New Employees During Safetrack

Prior to today, EPA limited who could telework to those employees that had been with EPA for not less than 90 days - six months, at the supervisor's discretion. In other words, you had to work for EPA for at least 90 days before you could even request telework.

Today Chapter 280 signed an agreement with EPA that allows new employees to begin teleworking immediately, with supervisor approval, if they've been impacted by Metro's Safe Track repairs. NTEU Chapter 280 has been negotiating this and other Safe Track-related flexibilities with the agency in an effort to minimize the impacts of the track work on its members. It's been difficult, and the agency has not been very cooperative, but on this issue they agreed.

Specifically,...

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