Month: March 2019

NFFE-IAM is leading the fight for federal workers in three, distinct lawsuits. Read on to learn the latest on each lawsuit, and how NFFE-IAM members can participate.

Illegal Executive Order Appeal

As you may recall, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued guidance requiring agencies to rescind any implementation of three anti-employee executive orders (EO) issued by President Trump on May 25, 2018. This recession was due to the successful efforts of NFFE-IAM and other federal sector unions that sued to get the executive orders overturned. Immediately thereafter, the Department of Justice appealed that decision.

NFFE-IAM is defending the decision to enjoin President Trump’s executive orders in a joint brief which was filed in mid- February. Oral arguments are scheduled for April 4, 2019. It is unclear when a decision will be issued by the appellate court. The portions of the executive orders which were declared illegal in the initial NFFE-IAM lawsuit remain enjoined while the appeal is pending.

Official Time for VA Professionals

In November 2018, the VA announced it was unilaterally eliminating official time for more than 100,000 Title 38 employees. The department invalidated significant portions of collective bargaining agreements with NFFE-IAM, among others, claiming that the practice of official time is suddenly not subject to bargaining because it is related to “direct patient care.” Eliminating official time contradicts VA’s current agreements with NFFE-IAM and others.

NFFE National President Randy Erwin stated that official time is not only beneficial for workers, but is also critical to improving outcomes at VA hospitals. “The crux of the issue is that under official time, VA employees serve as an independent voice regarding working conditions, safety issues and mismanagement,” he said. “Plus, they represent whistleblowers and other employees who make credible claims against fraud, waste, abuse and political coercion and corruption . . . The VA kicking employees off official time in this way is a clear violation of the law. It is in direct response to the unions’ successful lawsuit last June against the Trump administration that nullified three illegal executive orders that attacked civil servants working under official time.”

The NFFE-IAM legal team is currently working with the legal teams from other affected unions and the U.S. Department of Justice to devise a briefing schedule for the lawsuit. Currently, it is not known when the court will hear this critical case.

Essential Employee Furlough Wage and Hour Violations

NFFE-IAM has joined forces with Snider & Associates, LLC, and several other Unions to file a collective action lawsuit against the federal government based upon its failure to pay minimum wage and/or overtime to excepted employees who are working through the shutdown. Snider & Associates is a law firm that primarily represents unions and employees with special expertise in federal sector labor and employment law matters.

In order to be eligible to join the case, you must be designated as FLSA non-exempt and excepted status and have performed work during the shutdown. The information about your FLSA status can be found on your SF-50. We strongly encourage every employee who is eligible, to join the case. There is no cost to do so. For more information about the case or to join please visit www.sniderlaw.com/shutdown. In addition to the communications that we will be sending out, you can also monitor that website for updates on the case.

You will not automatically be added to this lawsuit, you have to affirmatively join via the website. Your fellow bargaining unit members who are not NFFE members can join as well. However, the time for them to stand on the sidelines and let you shoulder the burden of representing them is over. We are in the fight of our lives. When telling non-members about the case, please ask them to join the fight by joining NFFE. The form to join can be found here. Give it to them, ask them to fill it out and send it to newmember@nffe.org. NFFE-IAM is leading the fight for federal workers in three, distinct lawsuits. Read on to learn the latest on each lawsuit, and how NFFE-IAM members can participate.

Illegal Executive Order Appeal

Official Time for VA Professionals

NFFE National President Randy Erwin stated that official time is not only beneficial for workers, but is also critical to improving outcomes at VA hospitals. “The crux of the issue is that under official time, VA employees serve as an independent voice regarding working conditions, safety issues and mismanagement,” he said. “Plus, they represent whistleblowers and other employees who make credible claims against fraud, waste, abuse and political coercion and corruption . . . The VA kicking employees off official time in this way is a clear violation of the law. It is in direct response to the unions’ successful lawsuit last June against the Trump administration that nullified three illegal executive orders that attacked civil servants working under official time.”

Essential Employee Furlough Wage and Hour Violations

In order to be eligible to join the case, you must be designated as FLSA non-exempt and excepted status and have performed work during the shutdown. The information about your FLSA status can be found on your SF-50. We strongly encourage every employee who is eligible, to join the case. There is no cost to do so. For more information about the case or to join please visit www.sniderlaw.com/shutdown. In addition to the communications that we will be sending out, you can also monitor that website for updates on the case.

You will not automatically be added to this lawsuit, you have to affirmatively join via the website. Your fellow bargaining unit members who are not NFFE members can join as well. However, the tim

e for them to stand on the sidelines and let you shoulder the burden of representing them is over. We are in the fight of our lives. When telling non-members about the case, please ask them to join the fight by joining NFFE. The form to join can be found here. Give it to them, ask them to fill it out and send it to newmember@nffe.org.

Washington, D.C. – Today, the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) strongly condemns the fiscal year 2020 budget proposal from President Trump that decimates pay and retirement security for 2.1 million federal workers in a misguided attempt to lower the federal deficit on the backs of working people after passing deficit-exploding tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

“President Trump again sacrifices the middle-class families on behalf of the wealthy through his proposed pay freeze and needless cuts to earned benefits for federal workers,” stated Randy Erwin, NFFE national president.  “We saw during the 35-day shutdown earlier this year that many federal workers live paycheck to paycheck.  To freeze pay and cut earned benefits while charging employees more for less is unconscionable.”

The Trump budget proposal includes an elimination of cost of living adjustments (COLA) for FERS employees, a reduction of .5% in COLAs for CSRS employees, and elimination of the FERS special retirement supplement for those who retire before they are eligible for social security.  In addition, it proposes lowering annuity calculations through a basis change from high three to high five of earning years, and it aims to increase employee contributions to retirement plans with no added benefits.

As in previous budgets, Trump has proposed cuts to pensions totaling at least $148.9 billion over the next 10 years, which equates to approximately $75,000 per federal employee.  As the nation’s largest employer with 85% of its workforce located outside of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, these cuts would decimate the pay and retirement security of residents in local economies across the country.  In recent years, federal workers have already endured more than $182 billion in financial losses because of pay freezes and cuts to earned benefits.

“Federal employees have endured what was asked of them during austere times, but to destroy the pay and retirement security of millions of Americans to make way for tax cuts for the super-wealthy is unacceptable,” Erwin continued.  “Instead of using failing private sector retirement benefits as an excuse to slash federal sector benefits, President Trump should challenge both the private and public sectors to strengthen pay and retirement.  This horrific budget proposal represents nothing more than a shameful race to the bottom for all Americans, not just federal employees.”