Page 10 - FCW, August 2021

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Agencies take steps to improve labor relations
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In the early days of his administration, President Joe Biden issued an executive order that instructed agencies to roll back former President Donald Trump’s workforce policies and consider rene- gotiating contracts that were based on the previous policies.
Now many agencies are trying to rebuild their relationships with federal employee unions. The Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to revert back to a 2010 collective bar- gaining agreement as updated in 2014 and negotiate a new contract with the National Treasury Employees Union. The union and HHS will also seek a global settlement of any outstanding litigation and will resume
regular labor-management meetings.
The HHS announ-
cement also says officials
are negotiating the re-entry
plan with the union, which
represents 14,000 HHS employees, to include
“a permanent expansion
of telework and other
workplace flexibilities for
employees who worked successfully from home these past 15 months.”
In 2019, HHS implemented a par- tial contract against union approval, much of which was upheld by the Federal Service Impasses Panel. How- ever, an independent arbitrator ruled in 2020 that HHS’ implementation of the panel’s decision before reaching a new agreement with the union was a violation of the agency’s 2010 collective bargaining agreement. At the time, the union’s core objections to the contract related to restrictive teleworking and leave policies.
In related news, the Department of Veterans Affairs recently announced that it was re-establishing a National Partnership Council for labor leaders and VA managers that had been dis-
banded in 2017. The VA also restored the ability for medical care providers to use paid time off to represent a union or its members, and pledged to work through pending grievances and civil suits from unions and continue to imple- ment Biden’s executive order.
However, other agencies are still struggling to improve their partnerships with unions. In July, the Federal Labor Relations Authority ordered a hearing on 14 charges of labor law violations brought by the American Federation of Government Employees against the Education Department.
In a statement, AFGE National President Everett Kelley said: “Presi- dent Biden has ordered agencies to undo the anti- labor actions of the pre- vious administration and work with unions in good faith, yet the Department of Education has failed to do so by allowing these
illegal actions to stand.” Meanwhile, at the Social Security Administration, Biden ousted two leaders appointed to fixed terms by Trump. The agency is now under the leadership of Acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi, previously the agency’s deputy com- missioner for retirement and disability policy. SSA Press Officer Mark Hinkle told FCW that Kijakazi has met with union officials and made it clear that she “respects the bargaining process and wants a collaborative, respectful and
civil labor-management relationship.” The message that SSA managers must work with unions is “the exact opposite” of what it had been under the previous administration, said Barri Sue Bryant, president of AFGE Local 2809, which represents employees at the SSA opera-
tions center in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. However, union and agency officials continue to clash over contracts and
the unions’ role in formulating work- place safety plans. “SSA has such a long-standing culture of adversarial labor-management relations that it will take a very concerted effort to shift that culture,” said Melissa McIntosh, presi- dent of the Association of Administra- tive Law Judges.
Bryant said she’s seen some positive changes, however. Agency officials have been reaching out to her to talk about issues more often and doing so before they implement changes.
— Natalie Alms
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“Users, devices, #networks, workloads and #data are five pillars that are critical to #DigitalVA in developing a #ZeroTrust program,” says #DigitalVA’s Director of Enterprise Security Architecture Royce Allen at @FCWnow’s #cybersecurity workshop today
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8 August 2021 FCW.COM
The Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to revert back to a 2010 collective bargaining agreement as updated in 2014.