Stay current with the latest Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) news, case decisions, and policy shifts. This section tracks the impact of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute on the civil service, including critical rulings on Unfair Labor Practices (ULPs), negotiability appeals, and arbitration exceptions. Whether you are following the confirmation of new FLRA Board members, updates from the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP), or changes to union representation rights under recent Executive Orders, find the expert analysis and reporting that federal employees and labor relations specialists need to navigate the modern federal workplace.
“Openness in government” may be a matter of form over substance in some cases. Here is what author Bob Gilson found when searching through the new datasets posted by the FLRA in its attempt to meet the President’s commitment “to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government.”
After 30 years under the Federal labor law, the FLRA has ruled for the first time that personnel specialists are in a bargaining unit as their work is routine.
FLRA has a new website and, according to its Chairman, a new “season” based on “Revitalization, Reinvention, and Re-engagement”. Her message is the keynote on the cosmetically altered site. Taking on the prior Authority (of which she was a member) claiming it’s “performance, along with employee morale, had suffered” and sounding a lot like Al Gore, she wants to reinvent the FLRA but how she plans to do so is a bit hazy.
Federal agencies and federal employee unions have their own agendas with the result being disputes going on for years that seem to defy logic. The appeals court calls this case the “sort of dispute that could only arise between public employees and a governmental agency.”
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.
The exact origins of the current “Covered By” Doctrine are somewhat shrouded in the fog of early 1990s case law. Now that this doctrine has been fleshed out by subsequent FLRA and Court decisions, the author asks if it’s time for agency management to look at and, perhaps, take advantage of the opportunities the case law offers.
FLRA Chairman and member confirmed by the Senate providing a quorum that permits decisions to be issued. The nomination for General Counsel at the FLRA is still pending.
Thomas Beck and Carol Pope’s hearings for appointment to the FLRA were held on September 11. Amid some Bush bashing, hints on the Democrats future plans for Federal labor relations were provided by the only Senator present for the hearing.
Several readers have commented on the lack of a quorum at the Federal Labor Relations Authority with questions regarding whether nominations have been made for the vacant positions. Here is a listing of actions (or lack thereof) for the FLRA during the 110th Congress.
A recent news article on the FLRA site refers to the absence of an FLRA General Counsel. The site does not indicate where she may be though.
