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Renewed Call for Partnership: Will It Result in an Old Horse Beating or a New Opportunity?
Federal unions and some congressmen are asking for an executive order reestablishing the partnerships of the Clinton 90s. The author asks if we'd be better served by a stakeholder discussion before leaping into a repeat of a program that had very limited results.

Posted: June 24, 2009 | Full Story | Discuss this Article

President Nominates FLRA Member and General Counsel: Will Federal Unions Picket in Protest?
The President has nominated a couple of DC area locals. One has Federal sector experience as a union's top lawyer; the other also has strong union credentials but no listed Federal sector labor relations experience. The author asks if the unions will oppose these nominees as "ideologues" as they did with Bush nominees.

Posted: June 9, 2009 | Full Story | Discuss this Article

Evidence in Negotiability Cases? The FLRA Greases a Slippery Slope
On remand from a court decision, FLRA was instructed to revisit a record. In a decision blaming the Agency for not rebutting the Union's lousy evidence, FLRA relies on unsupported emails to decide the case. The author suggests that this case offers the parties an opportunity to dramatically affect future negotiability proceedings.

Posted: June 1, 2009 | Full Story | Discuss this Article

Telework: Trendy Hot Issue, Long Term Policy Goal or Political Plum?
OPM's new Director launched a "telework" initiative as his first leap into Federal human resources management. With a lot of other big issues to face, lots of people are saying "What the heck is this about?" The author of this article suggests some possibilities.

Posted: May 20, 2009 | Full Story | Discuss this Article

A Modest Proposal For Improving Federal Supervision
As someone who teaches seminars relating to Federal performance appraisals, it's become clear we don't have a clue how to evaluate/appraise supervisors. It's just as clear to me that their performance has everything to do with an agency's success or failure. This article proposes both a starting point and how their performance can be improved.

Posted: May 18, 2009 | Full Story | Discuss this Article

The Obama Partnership Executive Order: Where is It?
It's been over 100 days since the inauguration of the President. There's a lot of speculation in Federal labor relations circles about the status of the allegedly impending executive order reinstituting partnership. The author asks about the transparency of the process and suggests some possible holdups.

Posted: May 10, 2009 | Full Story | Discuss this Article

OPM's Closely Held Report of Union Official Time Use
The Author was able to obtain a copy OPM's report on official time used by union representatives which reveals interesting data but apparently not distributed widely. Did you know that some Agencies give the union representing its employees as much a $3 in time for every dollar in dues received by the union?

Posted: April 29, 2009 | Full Story | Discuss this Article

Bill to Move TSA into the Civil Service Mainstream: Interesting and (Maybe) Unintended Consequences
While Bills are a dime a dozen and not usually worthy of mention, H.R. 1881 seeks to bring the Transportation Security Workforce into the Federal Civil Service en masse. The Author points out provisions in the bill to keep an eye on if the Bill makes its way into law.

Posted: April 21, 2009 | Full Story | Discuss this Article

About Bob Gilson

Need federal labor and employee relations training or tech assistance? Contact Bob Gilson using this online form or call 757-437-7840 (available through multiple GSA schedules) for more information.

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