Unions argued that the decisions the panel made during the Trump Administration should be invalidated on grounds that Senate confirmation was required of members. Image: Africa Studio/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffPresident Biden has announced his intention to appoint 10 persons to the Federal Service Impasses Panel, an arm of the FLRA that decides on bargaining deadlocks and which drew much more than the usual level of attention during the Trump administration.
Biden earlier had emptied the board of his predecessor’s 10 appointees—most resigned but some were fired—who overwhelmingly had backgrounds from the management side of labor-management relations and who issued a string of pro-management decisions that unions decried and in some cases took to court.
Biden’s appointees in contrast come mainly from either the union side—including several former officials of the National Treasury Employees Union and Patent Office Professional Association—or from backgrounds in mediation/arbitration and teaching law. The latter category includes the appointee for chairman, Martin H. Malin, professor emeritus at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology and a member of the FSIP during the Obama administration.
Among the controversies that arose over the FSIP during the Trump administration was whether the members should be subject to Senate confirmation rather than direct appointment.
Unions argued that the decisions the panel made in that time should be invalidated on grounds that confirmation was required. The White House apparently does not agree with that position; its announcement regarding the new members described the action as an “intent to appoint” rather than an “intent to nominate.”
Biden has now named either appointees or nominees for nearly all of the key positions for federal employees. The most notable exceptions are that he has nominated only two persons for the three vacancies on the MSPB governing board, and he has not made a new nomination for OMB director since the initial nominee withdrew soon after being named.
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