HUD AFGE COUNCIL 222

Affiliated with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), we are comprised of HUD Locals throughout the U.S. Members elect delegates and the Council Executive Board meets monthly to set our direction/priorities.

Things You May Not Know About Annual Pay and Benefits Increases

Govexec.com, Jan 30 - It's the time of year when we clear out the old and start bringing in the new. For federal employees and retirees, that also means leaving your 2019 salary or retirement income behind and replacing them with more generous 2020 amounts.

If you're recently retired or about to retire, you may wonder what the differences are in how these adjustments are arrived at and implemented. Here's a brief list of things to know about annual pay raises and cost of living adjustments.

Retirement cost of living adjustments. These are designed, in short, to preserve the buying power of retirement income. Thanks to your COLA, you will have the same purchasing power—or the same ability to purchase the same amount of goods and services—that you did last year. read article for more

Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Grant Civilian Feds a 3.5% Pay Raise in 2021, and More

Govexec.com, Jan 29 - Democrats in both chambers of Congress on Tuesday reintroduced a bill that would provide federal civilian employees with a 3.5% across-the-board pay increase next year.

The Federal Adjustment of Income Rates Act (H.R. 5690) was introduced by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., in the House and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, in the Senate. The bill mirrors similar legislation the lawmakers introduced last year that would have provided federal workers with a 3.6% raise in 2020. read article

A Paycheck Foul-Up, and Changes to TSP Catch-Up Contributions

Govexec.com, Jan 22 - The agency responsible for processing payroll for around 650,000 federal workers last week announced that it had issued incorrect paychecks for some employees across the federal government earlier this month.

The problem stemmed from the final paycheck of the 2019 calendar, which ended Jan. 4 and was issued Jan. 10. A number of federal workers reported receiving both smaller and larger amounts than they were owed.

The National Finance Center, which is a subcomponent of the Agriculture Department but provides payroll services for a variety of federal agencies, first acknowledged the discrepancies on Jan. 10, and said the problem likely resulted from federal payroll tax withholding. read article

The Bad and the Ugly: 5 Proposals From OPM

AFGE.org, Dec 9 - From hiring freezes to government shutdowns, there is no shortage of bad policies coming from the Trump White House. Now the administration is rolling out some major anti-worker changes to personnel policies as part of its public service deconstruction plan.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is proposing four new regulations and planning to finalize a fifth rule proposed about two years ago. The proposed rules will need to be published in the Federal Register for public comment. The fifth rule may be issued and put into effect shortly.

1. Making more federal employees term employees - Just because the gig economy has made employment for so many Americans unstable and insecure doesn't mean the federal government should follow suit. But this new rule will do just that. The rule allows appointments of up to 10 years for certain science and engineering positions. These federal employees would have to "recompete" for their jobs every few years. This is part of an effort to make all federal employees renewable term employees. This regulation is designed to politicize the career civil service as political appointees and bad managers could simply allow an employee's term to expire if they didn't like the employee – for any or no reason, and with absolutely no recourse for employees. We've already seen how forced relocations and rejection of basic science have led to an exodus of qualified, career civil servants and researchers, and this rule would be another way for political agendas to harm our country's important, long-term research.

2. Allowing for more direct hires - The direct hire authorities, including removal of administrative law judges from the competitive service, are similarly designed to politicize the career civil service. Many of these appointments will be in the "excepted service" – meaning job applicants don't have to go through a competitive hiring process such as a written test or an evaluation of education and experience. Agency managers simply set their own requirements and hire whomever they want, regardless of qualifications.

3. Changing administrative leave rules - This rule, which has previously been proposed and will soon become final, would allow employees who are facing an investigation or adverse action to be placed on administrative leave for a maximum of 10 days per calendar year. After that, they have to be put on one of the two newly created paid-leave categories: investigative or notice leave. This is simply politicized personnel policy as it puts the punishment before the investigation of the facts, allowing employees to be punished on the basis of an allegation.

4. Extending seasonal employee appointments - This rule allows agencies to keep seasonal employees on the job longer. This may sound harmless on the surface, but it actually promotes endless back-to-back temporary and term appointments. Instead of being hired as full-time employees with workplace rights and fair compensation, these seasonal employees will remain temporary workers despite working the same hours as full-time employees.

5. Allowing temporary and seasonal employees to enroll in dental and vision plans - This proposed change is not objectionable, but since employees have to foot 100% of the premiums, it's not particularly useful to the employees either.

Finding Of Bad Faith Bargaining By Management

April 9, 2019, 222 President Holly Salamido - As many of you know, the Agency gave the Union notice last year that they wanted to renegotiate our current contract. This contract took four years to negotiate and guaranteed many benefits to employees such as Maxiflex, Telework and the right to Union representation. We have now begun negotiations and it is clear that management wants to take many of those benefits away.

We have been advised by management that it wants to eliminate maxiflex schedules for all employees. Management also want to eliminate language from the contract requiring employees to be treated fairly and equitably. This obviously speaks volumes about management´s concern for employee morale. This is your "thank you" from the Agency for the difficulties you endured during the shutdown.

It is clear to the Union that this will not be a fair negotiation. Management has refused to provide the Union with information necessary to negotiate and the Agency was just sanctioned by an arbitrator for violating the Federal Labor Relations Statute and committing Unfair Labor Practices related to the contract negotiations. You can read the arbitrator's decision here. The Arbitrator specifically found that the Agency's actions "constituted an unfair labor practice of bad faith bargaining in violation of the Statute which requires management and labor to engage in good faith negotiations."

As we go forward, the Union will continue to fight for your rights. But as this decision shows, it´s not likely to be a fair fight.

HUD Attempts to Limit Bargaining with Union

October 16 - HUD has refused to pay the travel expenses of Union negotiators in an effort to avoid bargaining with AFGE Council 222 over what the Department has characterized as "union-initiated changes."

When the Council requested data related to HUD’s expenditures on bargaining-related travel, HUD refused to provide the information. HUD said that it could not respond to the Council’s FOIA request because it was "very broad," and that it "would be quite costly to produce" the information requested because of the many hours of professional search time that would be required.

In spite of the difficulties imagined by the FOIA office, the labor relations office was able to provide some of the information the Council requested under federal labor-management statutes: Data related to travel expenses for Union negotiators for the past two years was provided (the Union had requested data for the past three years).

The Employee and Labor Relations Division, however, refused to provide data on travel expenses incurred by management negotiators. The Union has to wonder what HUD is hiding related to managers´ travel.

Given the current political animus against public sector unions, HUD’s recent actions seem to be part of a concerted effort to marginalize the Union and remove employee protections. In recent months, HUD has:

    •   Refused to negotiate with the Union over the Department’s recognition of a group representing other employees in the bargaining unit in what appeared to be a violation of the Union’s right to exclusive representation.
    •   Claimed the Department did not have to negotiate what it called "union-initiated bargaining." The Federal Labor Relations Authority upheld the Union´s unfair labor practice complaint, and ordered HUD to the bargaining table.
    •   Refused to pay for Union negotiators’ travel expenses in cases of so-called union-initiated bargaining.
    •   Refused to provide current versions of proposed handbooks before negotiations in an effort to keep Union negotiators ignorant of the issues before they reach the bargaining table.

HUD says it wants to work with the Union, but these actions don’t support that claim.

Some Federal Contacts

Office of Personnel Management (OPM) PH-202-555-1212 | opm.gov email: info@opm.gov
Legislative Information http://beta.congress.gov/
Merit Systems Protection Board: www.mspb.gov
Federal Labor Relations Authority: www.flra.gov
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC): www.eeoc.gov
Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund (FEEA): www.feea.org

2018  Executive  Orders

We have moved all the 2018 articles on President Trump´s Executive Orders to their own reference page. The page is linked from the Library tab or you can access it directly 2018execorders.htm

Our Main Contract

After four years of negotiations, the Council signed a new term contract (in 2016). A working copy is available here in pdf.

The new Main Contract reflects the work of many talented union negotiators. It contains new provisions allowing employees to both telework and maxiflex (see Article 16) as well as a shortened two step grievance process (Article 51). Previous contracts can be found within the Library link.

New Employees PowerPoint Presentation and Information

As a Council, we primarily bargain (at the national level) issues that impact your working conditions. Past negotiations have resulted in flextime, credit hours, telework, and other workplace benefits. We also work with HUD constituents to advocate for HUD programs, and fight wasteful contracting out of federal work. Please keep in mind that we are a volunteer organization; we elect our leadership from our membership. So it's very important that the best employees become union members and activists. As a bargaining unit employee, you are eligible for membership. If you have not already done so, we encourage you to talk with your Local President. Locals are the key to enforcing the benefits we negotiate at a national level. Without strong and active Locals, the contract is just paper. Also, we encourage you to explore our website. Our new employee power point presentation can answer many of your questions about what the union does at HUD. And our bargaining page incudes information on the latest bargaining issues. Again, welcome to HUD. We care deeply about HUD and its mission. We believe that respect in the workplace results in productive and creative employees. We hope you do, too. Download our Welcome To HUD powerpoint presentation and contact your Local President (listed on our About Us page) if you have any questions! To join, fill out an SF-1187 and hand it to your Local President!

© 2012 HUD AFGE COUNCIL 222