Recent Publications:
November 23, 2021 “Member’s Bulletin:” please click here.
September 21, 2021 “Member’s Monthly Bulletin:” please click here.
August 4, 2021 “NTE Conversions Begin Thanks to NTEU:” please click here.
July 27, 2021 “All BUE Quarterly Newsletter:” please click here.
November 22, 2019 “Know Your Rights:” please click here.
Further Details on Telework Issues: However, fighting isn’t always a good idea. If anyone doubts that, we encourage you to read some of the other Panel decisions issued the same day as ours (or the decision the Panel handed AFGE a few months ago). Now that the injunction on the union hostile Trump Executive Orders has been lifted, the Panel is using those as guidelines in its decisions. That has resulted in huge reductions of union rights in a number of critical areas. While NTEU knew that leaving too much to this Panel to decide would be perilous even before the injunction was lifted, these recent decisions demonstrate just how effective our strategy was to cut the best deals possible on all of the other articles. We are more convinced than ever that had we left anything else in the hands of the FSIP we would have certainly fared poorly.
AS ALWAYS, YOU NEED TO BE A PART OF THIS UNION. IF YOU ARE A MEMBER, THANK YOU!! WE COULD NOT DO THIS WORK WITHOUT YOU. IF YOU AREN’T A MEMBER, JOIN NOW BY CLICKING HERE. YOUR COLLEAGUES ARE PAYING FOR WHAT YOU ARE TAKING FOR FREE. YOU CAN CHANGE THAT NOW. JOIN YOUR UNION!
With respect to your new Telework article, the Agency told us they are committed to implementing and following the Panel’s ruling. The Agency is preparing the “official” copy for our review, and we expect to see that very soon. For now, NTEU has incorporated the changes to the article into our new contract summary, which you can find here.
Regarding the new Telework article, here are the highlights:
First and foremost, your current telework days will stay the same. We rewrote the sidebar in our final proposal to protect the status quo. It states that there will be no diminishment in the number of TW days that BUEs are currently working, subject to the provisions of this Article.
In other words, unless the Agency can point to some legitimate reason to cancel or reduce the number of days you telework, it will remain untouched. However, it should also be noted that we retained the right to grieve telework issues in the grievance article. If your telework is messed with, we need to hear about it so we can evaluate the situation and determine the efficacy of filing a grievance.
The most significant change concerns the Agency’s ability to cancel telework for larger groups of employees. In an effort to make sure we met the Agency’s stated concerns that it raised at the Panel proceedings, and in order to position ourselves as favorably as possible to convince the Panel to adopt our proposal, we offered under Section 6.F., that the Agency may temporarily suspend or modify TW for entire offices, groups, or classifications of BUEs based on legitimate, demonstrated operational needs, with at least 2 weeks of advance notice. And to give further clarification we offered these examples of “legitimate and demonstrated operational needs”:
Work is no longer portable;
There is not enough portable work to perform at the ADS, in which case the Agency will consider reducing TW not eliminating TW; and
BUEs who have portable duties are required to provide office coverage.
We think the Agency will be hard pressed to meet these examples, or to come up with any others that make sense. The “legitimate, demonstrated operational need” standard is a high bar. However, again, vigilance is cautioned and if the Agency attempts to reduce telework pursuant to this section, and we think that standard hasn’t been met, we will grieve.
Concerning eligibility, conditions for TW eligibility remain the same with the additional statutory condition of not having been “officially disciplined” for being AWOL for five days in any calendar (not fiscal) year. Section 3.D.
Under new Section 4, BUEs who TW more than 2 days per week may be required to hotel, but BUEs can reduce their TW to 2 days a week if they want to keep their designated workspace. In HOs where BUEs have had and continue to have private offices, 2, 3, or 4 BUEs who TW more than 2 days a week may share an office. If BUEs are required to report to the ODS (training, etc.) and management cannot provide “workspace to use for the remainder of the day,” BUEs can return to the ADS to complete the workday, with 30 minutes of duty time for the commute.
Under Section 6.A., if a BUE with an approved TW agreement is not TW ready when the ODS closes due to weather or safety-related conditions, the BUE may be granted weather and safety leave on a case-by-case basis. If the ODS closes due to emergency, safety-related situations, BUEs with TW agreements will TW, but will be granted weather and safety leave for the commute home.
For disruptions at the AWS, management may require the BUE to report to the ODS, but the BUE may request duty time (admin leave) for the commute. If a BUE cannot work safely at home due to a weather or safety-related condition, the BUE must contact a GS as soon as practicable. Management may direct the BUE to come into the ODS if the BUE can do so safely. If so directed, the BUE will receive duty time (admin leave) for the commute. If the BUE is not directed to come into the ODS, the BUE will be granted weather and safety leave. If the ODS closes and the condition creating the disruption makes the ADS unsafe, the BUE may be granted weather and safety leave in accordance with Article 16.
Those are the highlights. We will get the entire article to you to look at very soon. click here.
Please find copies of our old Newsletters, Know Your Rights, and General Bargaining Unit Information publications here.