Bob Gilson
Bob Gilson 
The MSPB is proposing to change its regulations in “radical” ways (their words). Among these are pushing a rule that requires an Agency to deliver the employees of another Agency as witnesses in a hearing. Agency Counsel and representatives should pay attention.
The FLRA has announced a series of Town Meetings that practitioners should consider attending. On a sad note, a Federal labor relations giant passes.
After nearly 2 ½ years of meetings, Agency arm twisting to establish pilots, pressure to identify metrics, and 177 pages of print, the long awaited report on labor relations was sent to the president. If you think GSA spent too much on a conference, the report proves that you can spend a ton and not even get an entertaining speaker or a dip in the hot tub in return.
Whenever a new term agreement or contract is negotiated, the parties generally exchange ground rules. The author offers a set of ground rules for Agencies to consider offering when getting ready to negotiate a new contract.
In Friday’s (May 4, 2012) Federal Register, the Federal Labor Relations Authority announced that, beginning June 4, 2012, parties will be able to e-file in a number of proceedings before the Authority using the Authority’s e-Filing system.
When Federal employees publicly act out, there’s generally a call for immediate action. As with most things Federal, it’s more complex than it should be. Over the last 100 years (almost exactly), Congress has passed numerous laws that complicate and make the accountability process difficult and time consuming.
The author says that the MSPB is systematically making the process for taking disciplinary and adverse action more complicated and legalistic. He offers some suggestions for improving the disciplinary process.
In a case involving FLRA’s appropriate arrangement theory, abrogation theory and its new regulations on arbitration appeals, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals dealt the agency a sharp rebuke saying that it had issued a contrary ruling to its own prior decision on the same facts in the same Agency involving the same issue.
According to the CNN and others, FAA and NATCA signed an agreement to continue the current agreement until 2016 with a side agreement on pay.
The FLRA writes that changing its constitution to “punish” controllers who leave its bargaining unit and return, was an unfair labor practice retroactively but not “prospectively.” The unions’ action was to “punish unit members who escaped the unconscionable terms and conditions unilaterally imposed by the FAA . . . by going to work for FAA management.”
