Agencies must allow employees’ exclusive labor representatives pre-decisional involvement with regard to any planned personnel actions to reduce federal civilian workforce costs, OMB has said in a memo covering agency responsibilities in the face of the sequester’s automatic budget cuts of around 9 percent for most federal agencies.
According to the memo, M-13-05, in instances in which agencies are considering potential furloughs, they have a duty to notify exclusive employee representatives and if requested, bargain over any negotiable impact and implementation proposals the union may submit, unless the matter of furloughs is already covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
