OPM has told agencies to make sure they are complying with their obligations to “consult and communicate” with management organizations representing federal employees and with other organizations on matters related to agency operations and personnel management.
In a memo, it said that agencies “are required to establish consultative relationships with management associations whose membership is primarily composed of federal supervisory and/or managerial personnel, provided that such associations are not affiliated with any labor organization and that they have sufficient agency membership to assure a worthy dialogue with executive management.”
“Additionally, agency management, supervisors, and managers should be included in the decision-making process and notified of executive level decisions on a timely basis even if individual supervisors and managers are not affiliated with an association of management officials and/or supervisors. Consultative relationships with other non-labor organizations representing federal employees are discretionary,” it said.
The goals include improving agency operations, personnel management, employee effectiveness and the exchange of information, and establishing policies that best serve the agency mission, it said.
Individual managers and some organizations consisting of managers have long complained that they have been left out of cooperation initiatives mainly aimed at giving unions a greater voice in agency decisions. Those programs were first launched during the Clinton administration, took a much lower profile although were not abolished in the Bush administration, and then were revived the Obama administration.
