From Government Executive:
An investigator with the Federal Labor Relations Authority has preliminarily concluded that the Social Security Administration illegally attempted to intimidate officials with the Association of Administrative Law Judges earlier this year.
In June, the union filed an unfair labor practice complaint alleging that in January, management officials verbally threatened to “discipline” union officials after they took official time and left the workplace to prepare for a collective bargaining negotiation session, despite the fact that the practice is spelled out in an existing union contract and a memorandum of understanding.
“We don’t have union offices like other unions, so we need more flexibility to do union-related work, both for obviously practical reasons and for confidentiality concerns,” AALJ President Melissa McIntosh said. “We were preparing for contract negotiations, and [management] knew that because the period was negotiated in our ground rules.”
McIntosh said that the agency officials did not specify how they would discipline union representatives who continued to use official time off-site, and they refused to submit the warning in writing.
“So I contacted the acting commissioner [Nancy Berryhill by email], and a meeting resulted,” McIntosh said. “There, we were admonished [by Deputy Commissioner Theresa Gruber] to ‘adhere to the chain of command,’ to be patient and that the incident was a small matter.”
This week, the FLRA informed the union and the agency that an investigator has determined that the complaint “has merit,” meaning there is sufficient evidence to indicate that management interfered with employees’ rights to engage in union activity. ...
More correctly stated: the investigator found probable cause for the General Counsel (no one currently appointed) to issue a complaint to be heard by an ALJ, and reviewed by the FLRA Board. Until the process completes or the Agency voluntarily admits a violation in a settlement, no violation has been found.
ReplyDeleteGreat News!
ReplyDeleteAn Investigator with Trump’s anti-labor stacked FLRA, found the AALJ Unions Complaint of Unfair Labor Practices by SSA Senior Management has merit.
SSA has a huge management problem. You have a close group, inner circle of individuals in Senior Management positions who simply should not be there. Many are Senior Managers from years ago who had an anti-labor/employee agenda; went to great lengths to implement their controversial antiquated personnel policies; and some were even removed from said positions due to EEOC Compliance Orders, but the Agency placed them in other labor/employee relations positions against the spirit and intent of the EEOC Compliance Orders. These individuals nearly destroyed SSA years ago. Several came over to the Hearings Components of SSA with the roll out of HPI in 2001.
Although these individuals finally retired with good riddance, many returned to Senior Management positions with cushy financial rewards. Apparently, TPTB in SSA allowed these individuals to return as, “desperately needed,” which they were anything but. In so doing, these individuals are double dipping, i.e., collecting their full Annuity and full Senior Management salary. They have also been given other perks, such as being able to work from their homes across the country, and travel reimbursement. Most SSA employees are not even aware these individuals are working because they are never physically in office. At the start of 2019, SSA had more than 1100 Re-employed Annuitants, and 87% of these are double dipping, i.e., being paid full Annuity and full salary. Not all are in top Senior Management positions, but many are.
Those in Senior Manager positions have always had an anti-labor/employee relations agenda, and they are still quite motivated to implement retrograde and doctrinaire personnel policies, even though some were punished for the same tactics years ago. While they were punished, recall SSA did not hold them accountable, and continued to place them in other labor/employee relations positions.
So, what you have here is a group of Re-employed Senior Managers with an anti-labor/employee relations agenda; are hell bent in implementing their antiquated personnel policies; have blatantly and repeatedly engaged in Bad Faith negotiations with Unions; and are fleecing taxpayers of a tremendous amount of money by double dipping, and re-hiring all their favorites from years ago under false pretenses they are “desperately needed,” so they can capitalize on the gravy train too. Quite simply, it is beyond outrageous, and new SSA Commissioner Saul is oblivious of this fact. Thus, it continues unabated.