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Two recent developments at the FLRA underscore the change in direction in union-related policies from the Trump administration.
In one, the Justice Department has effectively reversed its position on whether immigration judges are management officials and thus should not be eligible for union membership. The prior administration had successfully sought the FLRA to declare that they are members of management because their decisions affect agency policy, a decision paving the way for decertifying the National Association of Immigration Judges.
The union had asked the FLRA to reconsider that decision; the Justice Department under Trump had opposed that request but now has withdrawn that opposition. That could set the stage for the FLRA in turn reversing its position, especially if as expected the agency’s governing board changes from 2-1 Republican control to 2-1 Democratic control when a Republican member whose term is expiring soon is replaced by a Democrat.
The FLRA meanwhile rejected an appeal brought by the VA under the prior administration of a ruling regarding the relationship between a union contract and a 2017 law shortening the notice and appeal timeframes in disciplinary cases against VA employees. An arbitrator had found that the change related only to procedures after the agency decided to take an action and that the VA violated an existing contract by shortening “performance improvement periods” used before taking discipline on performance grounds.
The FLRA last year upheld the arbitrator and now has denied the VA’s request to reconsider that decision, saying that would amount only to relitigating issues that already had been considered and decided.
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