NTEU
Files Grievance on the Agency's
Refusal to Issue Union Email Announcements
Contact Dale Yeilding in the NTEU Union office O1G22 with any questions 301-415-3600.
Angela Bolduc (Human Resources Chief Employee Labor Relations and Work Life Branch),
NTEU claims the agency has not adhered to their published Values: "openness in communications and decisions" and "respect for individual [NTEU steward] roles, diversity and viewpoints" nor does the agency maintain an Open Collaborative Working Environment with respect to processing NTEU announcements. The agency continues to obstruct Union communications by having control of the agency's email system. The agency's unwillingness to distribute Union communications reflects negatively on the agency's safety culture with regards to treatment of differing views.
NTEU is filing a grievance based upon the agency's failure to issue Union announcements as required by Article 9.6 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). The CBA requires the agency to "make a good faith attempt to transmit the Network Bulletin [Union Announcement] via the Network Control Center within 24 hours of receipt." The CBA allows the Agency to provide advice or comments on Union communications but further clarifies specifically that "NTEU is not required to accept such advice or comments."
The Union is claiming a breach of the CBA since the agency has not issued the announcements listed below. This clear and patent breach of the CBA amounts to a repudiation of the CBA’s provision on email communications, and thus comprises an Unfair Labor Practice. The agency has interfered with the Union Steward's representational rights and statutory right to communicate to employees, which constitutes the Unfair Labor Practice
As a remedy, NTEU requests the agency:
1) Issue all future Union announcements within 24 hours of receipt and comply with the CBA provision on email communications.
2) Provide NTEU with the an agency-wide email group so the Union can send announcements to all employees after the agency has had 24 hours to comment.
3) Reimburse NTEU for reproduction, communication and distribution costs associated with any alternative methods that NTEU utilizes to communicate with employees.
4) Post a notice to employees of the agency's CBA violation and Unfair Labor Practice including the agency's corrective action and commitment to issue future Union announcements within 24 hours.
5) Provide any other remedy for employees who may have been negatively impacted by not having the information which was withheld by the agency, i.e. any other remedy an arbitrator deems appropriate.
6) Individually issue the announcements below with each preceded by an NTEU developed introductory statement about this case to explain the delay for each announcement to reach employees.
NTEU requests a meeting permitted by CBA, Article 51, section 11 and 18 to determine who will be the grievance step official and to consider mutual waiver of one or even both grievance steps for immediate arbitration consideration by the NTEU National office. Contact me (301-415-3600) to discuss grievance step official designation and the possibility of mutually waiving step(s). .
---Dale Yeilding
The following Union email announcements were submitted to the agency [Angela Bolduc] on the indicated date and were not distributed to all employees as required by the negotiated agreement:
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September 25, 2008
NTEU Subject: How long can the agency expect you to travel in a vehicle versus flying?
Should a group of 15 NRC employees have been asked to ride in an government van from Maryland to North Carolina, i.e. 385 miles for 7+ hours? The manager had a limitation of travel funds preventing the entire branch from flying to a site and wanted to open the voluntary opportunity to everyone (only ~5 ended up making the trip) "Voluntary" assignments carry some consequences, since those declining may have been disadvantaged by missing the professional opportunity while others that endured the long trip most certainly have gained.
Under 301-10.4 of travel regulations, the agency has quite a large latitude to determine the mode of travel. Staff in the CFO travel office say that NRC normally permits flying for a trip of that distance and calls for driving short trips, for example from Headquarters to Region 1. NTEU may commend a manager for thinking outside the box when faced with a tightening budget. But opening burdensome but legal travel opportunities to a large group, might be balanced with the agency's past practice to keep this the best place to work.
Contact Dale Yeilding
in the NTEU Union office (301-415-3600) who will try to direct employees to the
right source for answers to travel related questions.
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9/25/08 - Date Agency received this Union announcement
Contract calls for an Agency good-faith-attempt to transmit to employees within
24 hours
October 2, 2008
SUMMARY: The President has signed the Fiscal Year 2009 Continuing Resolution with the 3.9 percent federal employee pay raise.
I am pleased to report that on the evening of September 30, 2008, the President signed into law H.R. 2638, the Fiscal Year 2009 Continuing Resolution package just prior to the end of the fiscal year. The new public law (PL 110-329) contains the 3.9 percent pay raise and numerous other NTEU-backed provisions. This law funds agencies for programs covered by the nine unfinished appropriations bills at 2008 levels until enactment of their bills or until March 6, 2009, whichever comes first. The Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, and Veteran Affairs are funded through FY 2009.
The agency delayed issuing Thursday's NTEU announcement of the House passage of this law which actually occurred a week earlier. NTEU strives to transmit timely news to employees and must resort to litigation when the Agency interferes with this right. Contact Dale Yeilding in the NTEU office with any questions at 301-415-3600.
October 8, 2008
NTEU Subject: SEC Employees to Share in $2.7 Million Settlement
NTEU has notched another victory in its fight against unfair pay-for-performance systems in the federal government, this time at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Under an NTEU-won settlement, African-American employees grades 8 and above and employees ages 40 and older at all pay levels will share in a $2.7 million payment and receive salary adjustments. The settlement was reached after an arbitrator ruled with NTEU on a grievance alleging SEC's merit pay system is illegal because it applies a vague and subjective system for awarding pay increases that adversely affected large groups of employees. SEC's flawed merit pay system has been suspended and the parties are negotiating a new merit pay system.
Contact Dale Yeilding in the NTEU Union office (301-415-3600) with any questions.
10/8/08 - Date Agency received this Union announcement
Contract states: Agency good-faith-attempt to transmit within 24 hours
October 8, 2008
NTEU Subject: NTEU Settles Grievance In Time for 2008 Appraisal Performance Ratings
NTEU is pleased to announce its success in settling a grievance alleging the Agency implemented a prohibited “forced distribution” of employee performance appraisals in violation of OPM regulations, 5 CFR 430.208 (c).
During the 2007 appraisal period, two NRC offices issued announcement(s): "…As we proceed with developing and issuing the 2007 appraisals within FSME [NMSS], we plan to look critically and to make meaningful distinctions in performance that are consistent with the Office's overall SPO rating of Excellent. We expect that the net result of this will be a more balanced distribution of appraisal ratings than in the past; i.e., fewer overall Outstanding ratings and more Excellent and Fully Successful ratings…"
These announcements, the Union claimed, could be interpreted to require the lowering of employee appraisal ratings since a lower office-level performance level was referenced. The Union’s grievance sought to ensure that employees are evaluated the right way – based solely on their own work performance. After negotiating with the Agency, the Union was able to achieve a settlement reaffirming this principle. Pursuant to the settlement, the Agency issued an announcement last week to all employees stating that performance appraisals are based solely on employee performance under the elements and standards presented to them at the beginning of the rating period.
Contact Dale Yeilding (301-415-3600) in the NTEU Union office with any questions.
October 22, 2008
NTEU Subject: Supervisor's Web-Tool That Automatically Generates Appraisal Text
Supervisors have a not-so-new tool to automatically generate appraisal text by simply entering the [Outstanding, Excellent, Fully Successful] outcome for element criteria of [quantity, quality, timeliness, independence]. NTEU was recently informed of the ~2-year old web-tool and explained to management the agency's automated process is reversed. The supervisor enters the outcome and the web program then generates the appraisal text inserting the proper adjectives into each sentence. The supervisor simply adds 2 examples to complete the element text. NTEU calls this backwards, since for example, the supervisor should first determine work quantity is "high" before entering into the tool the outcome as "excellent". Regulations prohibit appraisal quotas. This automated process appears to NTEU to begin with what should be the end result. The programmer, when faced with a tie score for the four criteria, was instructed by management to have the tool generate an outcome at the lower rating.
Employees should visit the tool webpage and determine if their supervisor used this backwards short-cut to generate an appraisal that does not clearly and explicitly justify their rating per the policy reproduced below. Contact Dale Yeilding in the NTEU Union office (415-3600) for appraisal appeal assistance for the document that may help get your next promotion.
MD10.67,
Part II, D.5 (dated 1986) - Performance Appraisal
Rating - Supporting Individual Element Ratings.
In addition to indicating the rating, the supervisor shall write a brief
narrative for each critical element, rating performance against the written
Fully Successful standard. When performance exceeds or does not meet the Fully
Successful standard, justification should be included to clearly and
explicitly justify the assignment of a rating above or below the Fully
Successful level.
5USC4302 Establishment of Performance Appraisal Systems (b) Under regulations which the Office of Personnel Management shall prescribe, each performance appraisal system shall provide for (1) establishing performance standards which will, to the maximum extent feasible, permit the accurate evaluation of job performance on the basis of objective criteria.
Appraisal Tips: You have five days to comment/sign your appraisal after receipt. Don't be rushed towards the October 31st management deadline and shortchange your comment opportunity.
October 22, 2008
NTEU Subject: Should Arrests Be At Work or Home ?
Investigators from the Agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) conspired with local law enforcement to arrest an employee for alleged off-duty conduct occurring a week earlier. Agency OIG investigators escorted the employee out of the workplace and into the custody of nearby police. It was reported to NTEU that an arrest at home would have been more burdensome. NTEU is working with agency management to halt this OIG practice causing considerable work-place disruption and embarrassment.
Contact Dale Yeilding in the NTEU Union office at (301-415-3600) for information about off-duty activities affecting your job and security clearance.
October 27, 2008
NTEU Subject: Excused Absence for Public Elections
NTEU reminds employees of an important provision of the Collective Bargaining Agreement:
19.1 Excused Absence, Public Elections When the public election polls are not open at least 3 hours either before or after an employee's regular hours of work, the employee will be authorized an amount of excused absence which will permit him or her to report for work up to 3 hours after the polls open or leave work up to 3 hours before the polls close, whichever requires the lesser amount of time off.
Contact Dale Yeilding in the NTEU Union office (301-415-3600) with any questions.
October 30, 2008
NTEU Subject: NTEU Reviews Agency & Employee Award Proposals
As the appraisal process is completed in October, employees, managers and NTEU shift their focus towards awards which are typically distributed before the holidays. The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA Article 29.9) allows employees to recommend an award to a fellow coworker. NTEU will review these employee recommendations along with those proposed by management as each office/region follow the union participation process outlined in the CBA. Three previous years of information including past award amounts and past appraisal ratings are assembled for the NTEU steward review for: Performance Awards, Special Act Awards, Service Awards and High Quality Increases.
You may want to cc NTEU on your award recommendations and contact Dale Yeilding in the NTEU Union office 301-415-3600 with any questions.
October 31, 2008
NTEU Subject: Streamlining of NRC Hiring Process Eliminates Competitive Opportunities
In an effort to streamline the NRC hiring process, the agency has eliminated the requirement to use competitive procedures for selection of a employees into supervisory positions. The change allows selecting officials to eliminate the use of rating panels when advancing an employee into the supervisory ranks.
Besides rating panels, rating factors have been eliminated in some cases. These streamlined changes of Management Directive 10.15 (Merit Staffing) affect new employees who can be uprooted and begin their federal career without even having the position's knowledge, skills and abilities identified to confirm they are a "good match" for their position. If not a good match, the new employee faces a rough 2-year probationary period with a chance of being fired without justification. The agency gains with a quicker hiring process giving the agency a trial & error hiring mentality, while employees loose competitive fairness, sacrifice uniformity and face others being selected to a position for which they may have been amongst the best qualified if a rating panel was used.
The statute, 5 USC 7106(a)(2)(C), provides management with rights associated with selection from a properly ranked list of candidates. NTEU has negotiated a procedure in the Collective Bargaining Agreement to properly and fairly develop this ranked list called the best qualified list (BQL) through a process involving a rating panel for bargaining unit employees that remains unchanged. This procedure has been successfully used at the NRC for decades with the rating panel minimizing aspects of preselection by ensuring that only the best-qualified candidates are presented to the selecting official. NTEU though critical of this change for non-bargaining unit positions retains control of the merit selection process for the majority of vacancies through statutory bargaining rights. The Union has no authority over the supervisory selection process nor the process for newly hired employees which has undergone this drastic change.
Contact Dale Yeilding in the NTEU office (301-415-3600) with questions or comments on the agency merit selection process. Read more on this topic at the NTEU RatingPanelGone webpage which includes quotations from James McDermott (Human Resource Office Director) in a recent Government Executive article, annotated with critical NTEU comments.
November 6, 2008
NTEU Subject: Childcare Subsidy Will Increase and Be Given To More Employees
The agency has proposed changes to the Childcare Subsidy Program and NTEU will begin negotiations for further increases. Public Law 107-67, Sec 630 and 5 CFR 792 permit Federal agencies to assist lower income Federal employees with child care costs through a subsidy program. Last year less than $10,000 of the budgeted $40,000 was actually paid to employees due to the agency's limitation on who qualifies and the distribution structure. Employees near the old upper income limit of $55,000 would only receive an agency subsidy of 10% of their actual costs each month. The agency is proposing to increase both the maximum salary and the maximum subsidy. NTEU will be further requesting the agency readjust the distribution chart so as to increase the 10%, such that more of the budgeted $250,000 over the next five years is actually paid out to employees that qualify.
Employees with a combined family income of less than $68,000 are asked to stop by the NTEU office (O1G22) to discuss options and help shape the Union proposal. Contact Dale Yeilding, NTEU Chapter President at 301-415-3600.
November 10, 2008
NTEU Subject: Outstanding Salary Debts Pay Back Period
The agency issued an HRMS Bulletin on November 6, 2008 associated with W-2 tax reporting affects on paying back an agency overpayment. NTEU has negotiated provisions in Article 14 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for employees to request a waiver for a salary dept and pay back the overpayment over a specified period of time:
CBA, Article 14.3 - "… Collection shall be made over a period not greater than the anticipated period of employment. If the circumstances warrant, consideration will be given to permitting the employee to pay the debt over the same number of pay periods as were involved in the erroneous overpayment. The amount deducted for any period may not exceed two-thirds of the pay from which the deduction is made, unless the deduction of a greater amount is necessary to make the collection within the period of anticipated employment…"
Employees will pay 2008 taxes on the entire overpayment if not completely paid back before December 31st. If the overpayment pay back is completed in 2009, employee's income reflected on the 2009 W-2 statement will be reduced by the entire amount of the overpayment thus reducing the tax obligation a year later. Employees may want to seek professional tax advice for their particular situation and contact Dale Yeilding in the NTEU Union office at 301-415-3600 with policy questions.
November 19, 2008
NTEU Subject: Union Claims Managers Cannot Terminate a Credit Hour Schedule to Discipline Employees
The credit hour program is just one of the many benefits the Union won for employees through negotiations. It came as a surprise when management used it as a disciplinary tool. Specifically, management denied an employee’s request to earn credit hours as discipline for alleged noncompliance with the Office’s Time and Attendance (T&A) policy. Regularly making T&A changes right before the 10AM certification-Monday deadline was viewed by management as non-compliance with the alleged office policy that only permits changes at this late date as an "exception". Management in a grievance decision claimed the late changes interfered with the Research operational requirements and resulted in an undue burden on the organization.
In response, the Union filed a grievance and subsequently invoked arbitration to not only represent that employee but all employees so as to challenge this inappropriate practice at the onset. The Union is pleased to announce that soon after the grievance was filed, the Agency returned the employee to the credit hour program and to date all of the employee’s requests for credit hours have been approved. Additionally, we have not heard that any other supervisor has disciplined an employee by denying a request for credit hours.
T&A changes are permitted on the last Friday and certification-Monday per MD 10.43 (Time and Labor Reporting). Employees should balance their own office T&A timeliness requirements with the need to maintain reporting accuracy. Contact Dale Yeilding in the NTEU Union office (301-415-3600) if you experience retribution for making T&A changes.
NTEU Working Today for a Better Tomorrow
Contact Dale Yeilding in the NTEU Union office O1G22 with any questions 301-415-3600.