NTEU was successful in working with Congress to secure an average 3.1 percent pay increase for federal employees and the historic passing of a paid parental leave program providing 12 weeks of paid time to spend with a new child.
Read MoreTrump Directs 2019 Pay Freeze
Today, the President sent congressional leaders a formal letter transmitting an alternative pay plan for the calendar year 2019 pay raise for federal workers in the General Schedule that would block a pay raise for January 2019 and freeze current pay rates—both the annual across-the-board pay increase as well as locality pay rates.
Under current law, the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act, absent congressional action to establish a pay raise, the annual, across-the-board pay raise for most federal employee is set using a formula tied to the Department of Labor’s Employment Cost Index (ECI), which measures the rise in private sector pay. Under the formula prescribed under this law….
Trump to Sign Bill Impacting Federal Employees
On Monday, August 13th, President Trump will visit Fort Drum to sign the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019. The bill includes several government-wide personnel provisions. The General Services Administration will extend its pilot telework program until December 31, 2020. The pilot telework program authorizes agencies to pay, with certain restrictions, necessary travel expenses for employees participating in a telework program. Also, agencies will be able to use direct hire authority for college and post-secondary students. This authority allows agencies to fill vacancies in specific occupations, grade levels, and locations when it can be proven that there is a critical hiring need or a severe shortage of candidates. View the text of the bill here.
Join NTEU for a Lunchtime Rally for Employee Rights July 25
Next Wednesday, NTEU will present arguments in our lawsuit against the President's anti-employee executive orders. These orders limit NTEU’s ability to represent employees, make it easier to fire hard-working employees where a manager and employee have a personality conflict, and restrict collective bargaining at government agencies. This undermines decades of federal law that govern labor-management relations in the federal sector.
NTEU is joining with other federal unions for a July 25 lunchtime rally….
Read MoreHiring Freeze Guidelines
On Tuesday, January 31, the U.S. Offices of Personnel Management (OPM) and Management and Budget (OMB) issued supplemental guidance on President Trump's recent hiring freeze memorandum. The memorandum supplements prior guidance issued January 25, 2017. The new memo lists a number of exceptions to the hiring freeze. The following exceptions potentially apply to EPA:....
Read MoreHiring Freeze Memorandum Recognizes Union Collective Bargaining Agreements
By now you've probably heard about President Trump's executive memorandum freezing federal hiring. Key features of the memorandum include:
freezes federal hiring indefinitely until the Office of Management and Budget implements "a long-term plan to reduce the size of the Federal Government's workforce through
attrition[;]"notes that the above-referenced memorandum shall be developed (although not necessarily implemented) within 90 days;
does not allow contracting out to circumvent the hiring freeze;
applies to all agencies except the military;
allows hiring for "national security or public safety responsibilities[;]" and
does not abrogate any collective bargaining agreement.
The memorandum contains a couple of encouraging items. First, it specifically recognizes union collective bargaining agreements, something that the President did not have to do. Second, it notes that reductions in the size of government will occur through "attrition," not other more draconian measures such as involuntary reductions in force (RIF).
Chapter 280 President Diane Lynne noted that "the hiring freeze adds to the already low morale at the Environmental Protection Agency. Since it's unclear how long the hiring freeze will last," she noted, "I have concerns whether EPA will be able to meet its obligation to protect the public in the longer term."
While reported in the press as an Executive Order, the document is styled as a presidential memorandum, not an Executive Order despite the wording that the President "order[s] a freeze on the hiring of Federal civilian employees..."
Inauguration Day Holiday & Other Inauguration Week Details
There will be a lot of disruptions in the Federal Triangle area for the presidential inauguration week. EPA sent out an email with details. It's important enough, that we're pasting it in total, below....
Read More2.02% Pay Raise Expected for 2017
Earlier in the year the President announced a 1.0% across-the-board pay raise for federal General Schedule (GS) employees. Now, under different authority, the President transmitted to Congress his plan to provide an additional 0.6% average locality pay increase for federal GS employees.
In the Washington-Baltimore area, this means GS employees will receive a 2.02% pay raise after January 1, 2017.
According to the Office of Personnel Management, the....
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