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SFLERP Labor Relations Training National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations Update Agencies, Unions Should See Executive Order On Labor Forums as Opportunity, Speakers Say FLRA's OGC Still Attempting to Recover From Bush Administration Cuts,Clark Says FLRA General Counsel’s Remarks SFLERP National Board Elections in September: Call for Nominations FLRA GC Appoints new SFLERP NY/NJ Chapter SFLERP DC Chapter Meetings Executive Order 13522,
SFLERP Labor Relations Training
DC - September 21-22, 2010
The Society is sponsoring a 2-day training on Basic Federal Labor Relations to be held in Washington, DC, from Tuesday, September 21 to Wednesday, September 22. The course covers all aspects of labor relations in the federal sector including President Obama's recently issued Executive Order. Click here for more information and for a Registration Form. National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations Update For an update of the latest developments in the work of the Council, it meetings, and the status of Agency Implementation Plans, please go to www.LMRCouncil.gov.
Agencies, Unions Should See Executive Order On Labor Forums as Opportunity, Speakers Say Reproduced with permission from Government Employee Relations Report, 48 GERR 541 (May 4, 2010). Copyright 2010 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (800-372-1033) www.bna.com By: Louis C. LaBrecque Federal agencies and employee unions should see President Obama's recent executive order requiring the establishment of labor-management forums throughout the government as an opportunity to work together to solve common problems, speakers said April 22 during the Society of Federal Labor and Employee Relations Professionals' 37th Annual Symposium. Christina Sickles Merchant, a professor at Syracuse University's Maxwell School, said that agencies and unions should “be experimental in applying new processes” in their labor-management forums. They also should take advantage of alternative dispute resolution methods for resolving differences, she said. “The implication for labor relations specialists and union representatives is that they have to get as good at using interest-based methods as they are at employing rights-based methods of resolving conflicts. They have to find ways to act more preemptively and with respect to differences … so that information that one might react to after a decision is made is actually embedded in the decision itself …, thus avoiding the resistance to a decision that does not take into account key stakeholders' interests,” Merchant said. She added that “politicizing how you work with unions is a very costly mistake,” as the Bush administration discovered when it attempted to impose alternative personnel systems at the departments of Defense and Homeland Security without union cooperation. The administration spent hundreds of millions of dollars attempting to implement the systems and responding to union lawsuits, but ultimately was unsuccessful in imposing most of the changes it envisioned, Merchant said. 'Essential Source of Information.' Robert M. Tobias, director of the Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation at American University and a former president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said that federal agencies should see unions as vehicles for engaging employees and an “essential source of information” on employee views rather than as “meddlers.” Better decisions are made through collaboration, he said. Although the process of predecisional collaboration with employee unions can take longer than making decisions unilaterally, the time and effort are rewarded once the decision is made due to much easier implementation, Tobias said. According to Tobias, the labor-management partnership program created by Executive Order 13522, issued by Obama last December (47 GERR 1413, 12/15/09), differs from the program established during the Clinton administration in the emphasis on measuring results. The labor-management forums established by Obama, in contrast to the partnership councils established by President Clinton, are designed to serve “not only as engines, but also as measuring devices,” Tobias said. Unlike most other federal agencies, what was then the U.S. Customs Service during the Clinton years hired Booz Allen Hamilton to study the impact of the partnership program on agency effectiveness, Tobias said. The study found that the agency's partnership program with NTEU returned $1.25 for every $1 invested, he said. Merchant and Tobias, along with Marick F. Masters, a professor of business administration at Wayne State University, co-wrote a report released in February that urged proper funding for training and infrastructure at federal labor-management forums along with an emphasis on concrete goals and results measurement (48 GERR 201, 2/23/10). National Council Meetings. The National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations created by Obama's order has met twice thus far, in February and in April. The first meeting focused on agency deadlines established under the new program (48 GERR 227, 3/2/10). At the second meeting, the council approved 24 agency plans for implementing labor-management forums while rejecting 21 others for various reasons, including failure to consult with unions (48 GERR 422, 4/13/10). The next meeting of the national council [is] was scheduled for May 5, three days before the council's deadline under the executive order for certifying agency implementation plans for establishing forums. The council by May 8 also is responsible for presenting recommendations to the president regarding the establishment of pilot projects under which selected agencies will bargain with their unions over permissive topics, such as the numbers, types, and grades of employees and the technology, means, and methods used to perform work in federal agencies. As of the council's April 7 meeting, only the National Credit Union Administration and its union, NTEU, had agreed to bargain over such topics on a voluntary basis.
FLRA's OGC Still Attempting to Recover From Bush Administration Cuts, Reproduced with permission from Government Employee Relations Report, 48 GERR 540 (May 4, 2010). Copyright 2010 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (800-372-1033) www.bna.com. By: Laura D. Francis Despite eliminating its backlog of unfair labor practice and representation cases, due to budget cuts and lack of key leadership during the previous administration, the Federal Labor Relations Authority Office of General Counsel remains understaffed and thus unable to perform to the fullest, FLRA General Counsel Julia A. Clark said April 22. Speaking at the Society of Federal Labor and Employee Relations Professionals' 37th Annual Symposium, Clark said she is seeking ideas on how to handle OGC's ULP and representation caseload in a timely fashion given the fact that the office employs only 40 field agents. That staffing level, she said, results in a ratio of 45 to 50 cases per agent. When FLRA was established in 1979, OGC had a case processing time of 60 days for ULP cases and 30 days for representation cases. Now, its goal is 120 days for both. “I truly believe that part of the reason our caseload went down” was because parties did not file complaints in the belief that there would be no point, given that FLRA was not taking any action, Clark said. “The staffing crisis is not getting any easier” as the caseload continues to increase, and “that impacts the quality of service that we can provide,” Clark said. 'Highest Priority' to Lower Processing Time. “My highest priority,” she stated, “is to reduce OGC case processing time.” Delays in deciding cases can delay agency action and foster tension between management and unions, she said. “The current time targets are not what they should be.” While current time targets remain at 120 days, Clark said that OGC's goal is that 80 percent of cases be decided in this time--and even that target is not being met. Issuing a decision in as many as 120 days “is disruptive to the collective bargaining process,” but “that's the best we can do,” she said. Clark said that FLRA is continuing to update its website to be more user-friendly. Features in the near future will include electronic filing and the ability for OGC field agents to conduct online meetings with parties, she said. However, “there's only so far that technology can take us,” and the key is to increase OGC staff levels, Clark stressed. FLRA “survived a very uncertain time” during the Bush administration, when funding was slashed and guidance, manuals, and training materials were “summarily removed from the public domain,” Clark said. Not only was the authority hampered in its ability to aid parties in resolving labor disputes, but removing these materials made it hard for them to resolve their own disputes for lack of guidance, she added. At the same time, Clark said, the agency faced the resignation of “key leadership,” including its general counsel, leaving the position vacant for nearly 18 months. As a result, customer and employee dissatisfaction “reached intolerable levels,” she said. Backlog Eliminated, Guidance Updated. OGC is recovering, Clark said, and in March it eliminated its backlog of more than 340 unfair labor practice cases and over 800 appeals of regional director dismissals of ULP charges (48 GERR 292, 3/16/10). Staff now are working entirely on current cases and are uncovering long-hidden guidance and manuals, she added. Clark announced that a ULP case law outline is set to be released at the end of June, and a new ULP manual will be released at the end of July. In addition to revamping its schedule of training sessions, training materials will be posted on the FLRA website, and soon will be made interactive in order to enhance customer experience, she said. FLRA's current budget request “does request an increase” in funding, Clark said, noting the difficulty in justifying an increase in a way that makes sense to lawmakers and the public. She said that one explanation is that the budget increase is an investment that will save the government money in the long run because it will allow faster resolution of labor cases so that government employees can get back to work. In addition, Clark said that OGC has readjusted its policy to reflect what she believes is its “statutory mission” not just to decide labor disputes, but also to facilitate constructive discussions between parties so that they can resolve their own issues. Partnership With FMCS. Clark also highlighted FLRA's recent partnership with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to provide two-day training sessions related to President Obama's Executive Order 13522 on creating labor-management forums (48 GERR 422, 4/13/10). She stressed that the agencies want union and management representatives to register for the training together on the same form so that from the beginning they “see themselves as partners.” Clark added that the training is gaining support and that she has had “a number of requests” to expand the sessions beyond those already scheduled for May and June. Clark said that FLRA was fortunate to partner with FMCS because of the latter agency's experience in alternative dispute resolution and the fact that it has twice the field staff of OGC. In terms of measuring the success of labor-management forums, Clark agreed that while the number of grievances and ULPs filed is not irrelevant, it is a tool that is “easy to manipulate and easy to misunderstand.” She suggested that a better measure of success would be the level of employee satisfaction at an agency, as well as process improvements. According to Clark, labor and management representatives should not fear the same outcome for FLRA as under the Bush administration just because of a future change in administration. She noted that FLRA Member Thomas M. Beck, appointed FLRA chairman by President Bush before Obama appointed Carol Waller Pope to the post (47 GERR 371, 3/31/09), was “the one who began to turn the ship around” in terms of reviving the agency. She said that OGC nonetheless is preparing itself for the future by ensuring that it has a “high-quality career workforce” and a strong succession plan in order to prevent the loss of institutional knowledge. FLRA General Counsel’s Remarks Julia Akins Clark’s speech to the members of the Society at the 2010 Symposium is available in PDF SFLERP National Board Elections in September: Call for Nominations The Society will be conducting elections in September to fill three vacancies in the Board of Directors. The vacancies will be in three at-large Board positions, one each from management, labor and neutral. Members in good standing from each of those constituencies may run for the Board of Directors. The term of service is two years. If interested, please submit a brief biography in paragraph form by August 26, 2010, to info@sflerp.org.
FLRA GC Appoints new DC Regional Director The FLRA General Counsel Julia Akins Clark announced the appointment of Barbara Kraft as Regional Director of the FLRA Washington Regional Office. Ms. Kraft has practiced labor, employment and employee benefits law as a principal in a private law firm, as in-house union counsel and as a government attorney. Since September 2005, she has been a member of Kraft Alden, PLLC (previously Kraft Eisenmann Alden, PLLC) in Washington, DC, representing Federal and private sector unions, employees and benefit funds. Prior to September 2005, she was a shareholder in Beins, Axelrod, Kraft, Gleason & Gibson, P.C. After graduating from Wayne State University Law School in 1978, she worked first for the Michigan Employment Relations Commission, and then relocated to Washington to begin work as an attorney in the Division of Enforcement Litigation, Appellate Court Branch, at the National Labor Relations Board. She left the NLRB to work for the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, and thereafter entered private practice. Ms. Kraft holds bachelor’s, master’s and law degrees from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and a LL.M. in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center.
SFLERP NY/NJ Chapter held Spring Conference The NY/NJ Chapter held its annual Spring Conference on Tuesday May 25 in New York City. Over 70 attendees participated in the conference titled “Labor/ Management Communications for Success.” SFLERP Member and former National President Joseph V. Kaplan, Esq., with Passman & Kaplan P.C., served as plenary speaker and spoke about “Keeping Work Place Ant Hills from Becoming Work Place Mountains.” Other speakers included SFLERP Member Julia Akins Clark, General Counsel, FLRA; Anthony Falconeri, Labor & Employee Relations, EPA; and Edward Guster III, President, AFGE Local 3811 EPA, among others. Chapter President Timothy Germany coordinated the one-day conference. He’s already at work planning next year’s event. Idea? Please contact him at tgermany@fmcs.gov or call 516-944-5137.
SFLERP DC Chapter Meetings and Board Elections The SFLERP DC Chapter will be taking the summer off. The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 21. Elections will be held in September. If interested in helping out, please submit a nomination for each of the positions of President, Vice President and Treasurer by August 26 to info@sflerp.org. Chapter Board responsibilities include planning and executing the monthly chapter meetings. Please consider running so we can continue to hold our monthly meetings.
The chapter is always looking for ideas and suggestions for programs and events. To get involved in chapter activities or for more information, contact Rich Giacolone at rgiacolone@fmcs.gov or Barbara Haga at bhaga@fedhrservices.com. Executive Order 13522, The Full Text President Barack Obama signed Executive Order 13522 creating Labor-Management Forums and establishing the National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations. The Council shall advise the President on matters involving labor-management relations in the executive branch. A copy of the Executive Order can be found on The White House website at New Executive Order |
