The National Treasury Employees Union has filed a motion
for summary judgment in its suit against the Department
of Homeland Security to prevent some of its new personnel
system regulations from taking effect.
Like the Department of Defense’s National Security
Personnel System, DHS’s new personnel system is seen as
a precedent for future government–wide reform.
Five federal unions are named in the suite alleging that
DHS and the Office of Personnel Management went beyond
the authority Congress granted them under the Homeland
Security Act to develop collective bargaining regulations.
The union said the regulations — which put considerable
control in the hands of managers — do not “provide for
bargaining in good faith over conditions of employment;
give binding effect to agreements reached by the parties,
or; provide a neutral forum for deciding bargaining disputes.”
The regulations allegedly violate federal law by imposing
new duties and operational rules on the Federal Labor
Relations Authority and the Merit Systems Protection
Board, independent agencies beyond the jurisdiction of
DHS, the union argues.
The suit says the regulations attempt to give the FLRA
the redundant task of reviewing internal management–driven
decisions by the Homeland Security Labor Relations Board
in order to take “advantage of statutory provisions that
provide the courts of appeals with jurisdiction over the
FLRA’s decisions, thereby insulating the HSLRB from
review in the district courts.”
NTEU said the MSPB is “a critical check against
unreasonable management actions,” and argues the DHS
regulations “slant the process in favor of management
and prohibit MSBP from mitigating unreasonable penalties”
with minimal justification.
