From Government Executive:
The Association of Administrative Law Judges accused the Social Security Administration of breaking federal labor law when it implemented a partial union contract on Monday.
Union representatives said that the agency’s move flies in the face of the ground rules the parties reached earlier in the negotiation process, and that a decision by management to unilaterally rewrite one provision to implement a new rule on how it will withhold union dues is flatly illegal.
Negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement between Social Security and the administrative law judges date back over a year. During discussions last year, the parties reached agreement on 20 of 29 proposed contract articles, but went to impasse over the final nine. The Federal Service Impasses Panel issued a largely pro-management decision in April, prompting the union to sue the panel, arguing that the manner in which members were appointed violates the Appointments Clause of the Constitution.
In April, the agency indicated that it would implement a partial contract, arguing that provisions decided by the impasses panel are not subject to ratification. But it relented and indicated it would delay implementation pending the lawsuit after the Federal Labor Relations Authority took the rare step to stay the panel’s order. ...
But not even the impasses panel agrees with Social Security’s claim that panel orders are not subject to ratification. Last year, the panel removed language from a contract proposal offered by the Defense Department Education Activity in its dispute with the Federal Education Association seeking to exempt panel-imposed articles from the ratification process. ...
This happened on Monday. Note that also on Monday, Social Security requested OMB approval for proposed final regulations to substitute Appeals Council Judges for ALJs. These two events might be connected.
5 comments:
Connection seems unlikely. The move to non-judicial hearings has been under way for five years. The current union board was elected on 2018 on a pro management slate, but ODAR wouldn't even cooperate with them even as they caved on many rights from the old contract.
The current membership of the impasses panel is made up almost entirely of anti-labor conservatives. The panel also played a part in the outrageous and unfortunate actions last fall which caused thousands of SSA employees to lose all telework..This is not why the impasses panel was originally set up, to take away employee rights. The panel should be disbanded as it has failed in its mission, and it should be replaced with a fair arbitrator.
Why does everything thing seem so chaotic at SSA OHO? One thing after another after another. Can anyone provide logical reasons for what appears to be almost total chaos? Cannot blame it all on COVID19.
@4:19
I imagine it's not impossible that chaos is the goal.
If the ALJs dont like it, they can go try and be a judge somewhere else.
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