After hearing arguments from federal employee unions and
Department of Homeland Security officials on the
department’s latest proposal to move ahead with its
labor-management relations system, U.S. District Court
Judge Rosemary M. Collyer said she remains unconvinced
it would guarantee collective bargaining rights.
In August she blocked DHS from moving forward with its
proposed new personnel system, finding it illegal because
collective bargaining agreements would be non-binding —
but she allowed DHS to come back with an alternative
rather than appeal right away.
Unions asked the judge for a hearing on the latest
proposal, which removes a direct way DHS could set aside
collective bargaining agreements, but Collyer said the
authority leaves others open and questioned if DHS had
made enough changes.
Attorneys for the National Treasury Employees Union asked
Collyer to deny the department’s request to narrow the
injunctiont.
DHS has until Oct. 11 to appeal, and Collyer said she
would issue her ruling before then as to whether DHS can
move forward with portions of its labor relations system,
such as setting up the Homeland Security Labor Relations
Board.
Collyer ruled in August that DHS could not us the Federal
Labor Relations Authority as an appellate body to the
HSLRB, but while DHS’s proposal removes the FLRA from the
picture, it also limited the appeals process to the
HSLRB, which would be made up solely of the DHS Secretary’s
appointees.
